23, St George's Street

This is a shop, built between 1952 and 1954, designed by Robert Paine and Partners. It occupies a corner site on St George’s Street in Canterbury. The building is a rare example of a small, architect-designed shop from this period.

The shop has a single, double-height storey with a rear block of three storeys set at a right angle to the street. The front features full glazing at ground floor level, with a painted opaque strip of vertical panels above and a continuous strip of windows below the eaves. A return elevation has five large concrete piers, or pilotis, which rise to support an overhanging, folded zigzag roof slab. The upper parts of these piers are encased in a strip of vertical glass panels, transparent facing St George’s Street and frosted on the return to Canterbury Lane. Behind the pilotis are lower walls formed of zigzag timber panels in bronze frames, containing small glazed display cases. The upper part of this wall is glazed. The interior now has a suspended ceiling, but was originally open to the roof. The rear block features an inscribed travertine wall facing St George’s Street, separated by a strip of glazing from brick returns. The building incorporates glass in varnished hardwood frames, painted panels, timber panels in bronze frames, mosaic cladding to the pilotis, a copper-covered roof, travertine and brickwork.