Former Gas Showroom

FORMER GAS SHOWROOM, SANDGATE ROAD, FOLKESTONE

A purpose-built showrooms and offices building of 1938, designed by architect John Love Seaton Dahl (1884-1965) and built by Otto Marx. The building is executed in the Moderne style.

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION

The building is faced in brick in stretcher bond with a rusticated stone ground floor and polished black granite plinth. The flat roof incorporates four hipped metal and glazed rooflights that light the rear part of the first floor.

EXTERIOR

The main part of the building rises three storeys and spans three window bays, with a taller slightly projecting staircase tower positioned to the right. The upper floors have three recessed metal Crittall windows (taller to the first floor), separated by angled brick pillars. The ground floor retains its original shopfront, which features a central entrance flanked by two polished granite pilasters. The shopfront includes the original street numbering and two large shop windows, each with three pivoting casements above and polished granite stall risers. Two later fascias have been added, but an early photograph reveals that the original lettering "The Folkestone Gas and Coke Company" was applied directly to the top of the stonework of the shopfront. The right-side staircase tower has a full-height vertical window of four narrow lights with corrugated opaque glass.

INTERIOR

The ground floor features coved plaster cornices with scallop and interlocking circle motifs (partly damaged) and three axial beams with coved cornices. The basement is an undivided space with four pared-down fluted columns on each side with alcoves. Access is through a round-headed entrance flanked by two round-headed niches.

The first floor includes a round-headed archway with a corridor leading to a rear theatre for cookery demonstrations. This theatre has a curved cornice with Art Deco curved decorations, rectangular metal and glazed skylights, a pair of original wooden flush doors with octagonal glazed peepholes, and two angled walls each with a false round-headed door and smaller round-headed opening above. The front parts of both first and second floors contain small offices.

The main staircase is the most distinguished interior feature. Ovoid-shaped and cantilevered off the wall, it has a metal handrail and railings, finished in speckled yellow aggregate, and a circular shell motif fanlight. The staircase is embellished with a series of eight engraved and frosted curved glass panels in the Lalique style, designed to be lit from behind. These panels are decorated with marine emblems, including two panels with mermaids, one with seagulls, and the remainder with sea creatures (dolphins and angel fish). These panels are thought to have originally been lit by neon lighting, possibly in green.

HISTORY

The building was designed as showrooms for the Folkestone Gas and Coke Company. It was opened on 6 August 1938 by the Mayor of Folkestone, attended by many local dignitaries. The contemporary Folkestone, Hythe and District Herald described it as "a building on modern lines with an imposing facade, designed throughout on the most modern lines". The purpose-built theatre for cookery demonstrations was a particular feature. Local press reports from August 1938 noted that visitors from miles around came to Folkestone to see the building, admiring both the fabulous interior and the exterior which was illuminated with neon lighting.

SIGNIFICANCE

This is a stylish Moderne style purpose-built gas showroom with offices designed by a notable architect. The exterior is imposing and little altered, executed in good quality materials. The interior retains its original plan form, including the purpose-built theatre for cookery demonstrations on the first floor. Art Deco style details and fittings are well preserved, notably the fine ovoid staircase with engraved glass panels decorated with marine emblems. Purpose-built inter-war gas showrooms are now a rare building type, with only three listed nationally, and this example compares well with them.