The Former Wright And Pankhurst Building

RYE

776/0/10018 TOWER STREET 10-SEP-03 17 The former Wright and Pankhurst Building

GV II Repository stores, later book company and finally antique showroom. Built in 1907, Architect Philip Henry Tree of St Leonard's for local carriers Wright and Pankhurst as a fireproof repository and stores. Classical style. Built of brown brick in English bond with red brick and stone dressings and mansard tiled roof. Four storeys, three windows to the front. Three storeys and attics, three windows to the sides. EXTERIOR: Front elevation has three giant round-headed arches between first and third floors with stone keystones and impost blocks. The central window has fixed casements with 12 panes and the end windows are opening casements. The ground floor has central double doors, half-glazed, with granite keystones which are flanked by smaller round-headed windows and at the sides are two round-heded niches with granite keystones and a stone date plaque surviving to the left side only. This has the date 1907 with the initials Wand P (for Wright and Pankhurst) with a carving of a galleon and dolphin. The right side elevation has three blocked dormers, a cornice above the second floor and four pilasters between first and second floor with decorative rainwater heads, decorative S-shaped iron tie plates to first and third floors and two heart-shaped iron tie plates to the second floor. There are three casement windows but the left hand third floor opening has a wooden fire escape and the ground floor has three round-headed windows with granite keystones. The left side elevation has a mansard roof with brick chimneystack. The rear elevation has a projecting lifttower and a loading dock and the windows have original openings but later C20 windows. There is a later C20 shutterfronted grille at the base of the lifttower. INTERIOR: Contains original sliding fire doors produced by Lucas and Son of Brockley, Lewisham and concrete staircase. HISTORY: At the time the building was described in an advertising brochure as "the only absolutely fireproof building of its kind in England - each floor heated by the most up-to-date scientific hot air apparatus and served by a gas powered lift to reduce the risk of handling." Wright and Pankhurst were described as a Motor-car proprietor from 1911 but their horse drawn taxi service continued until the 1930s.