Kent's Chemist

Kent's Chemist

Chemist's shop with former residential accommodation over and behind, built in 1894 to the designs of Messers Tinker and Morewood of Southampton Row, London, for the Kent family.

The building occupies a corner plot with its main shopfront facing north onto Walton Road and its west flank elevation facing onto Spencer Road. The principal corner block is two storeys high with an attic level contained within a steep mansard roof. To the south, fronting Spencer Road, is a section named Norfolk House, which is two storeys high with a part mansard, part flat roof. The accommodation continues from Norfolk House into the front block, over the original shop. Norfolk House was formerly residential but is now occupied by the chemist's shopfloor at ground floor level, with offices and treatment rooms above.

The main building is constructed of red brick with yellow brick banding, whilst Norfolk House is of yellow brick with red brick banding. Windows are part-leaded timber casements, and pitched roofs are tiled.

The main corner block is executed in the Domestic Revival idiom. It has two bays to the north, turning at a curved corner to two bays to the west. The windows are painted timber with mullion and transom divisions, and octagonal leaded quarries in the upper lights. A plasterwork plaque between the two first-floor windows to the north reads 'established A.D. 1869'. There are mullioned dormer windows to the north and west; the northern dormer has a pedimented plasterwork date plaque above it reading 'A.D. 1894', and the western dormer is divided in two by a plasterwork plaque with an inscribed cartouche and the letter 'K'. The west elevation also features a chimney with decorative brickwork and an inset panel of patterned terracotta tiles.

The ground floor is clad in brown glazed bricks. The main shopfront to the north comprises two large windows divided vertically by a split turned mullion with an acorn finial, and horizontally by a transom. The position of the transom corresponds with the interior location of the carboy shelf, where traditional chemists would display large glass containers filled with coloured liquids as a means of identifying themselves. The upper lights of the shop window have a small timber spandrel with pendant in the top corners, above which runs a row of small square coloured bulls-eye glass lights with a ventilation plate in the centre. The windows rest on a deep, heavily-moulded cill and are flanked by shallow brick pilasters. The window lintel is painted stone, above which is a fascia framed by a brick cornice above and a moulded brick band below. The stall-risers and fascia bear mosaic signage; white lettering on a turquoise ground reads 'chymist' and 'druggist' below the shop window, and 'Molesey Park Pharmacy' above.

The shop door occupies the corner of the building and is a curved, half-glazed double door with corner spandrels and pendants, and a band of small bulls-eye glass lights matching the shop window. Above the door is a rectangular fanlight following the curve of the building, divided into a geometric pattern by glazing bars and glazed with leaded coloured bulls-eye glass lights. Above this, the mosaic fascia spells the word 'Kent'. The shopfront continues around the corner to a single narrow bay, with a window matching that to the north but much narrower. The fascia mosaic here is very faded, though the words 'Molesey Park Post Office' can just be made out. The stall riser is blank, and may have had another mosaic that is either lost or covered. Beyond this stretch of shopfront is a pair of canted bay windows.

Norfolk House is irregular in composition but could be said to have three bays. The entrance bay, closest to the main block, has a mansard roof and a leaded window with painted stone surround over an inset name plaque and a wide door. The door has four panels and an upper panel glazed with coloured decorative leaded lights; leaded margin lights flank either side. The other two bays have six-over-one sash windows and a flat roof behind a brick parapet. The lighter colour of the southernmost bay suggests it is a newer addition, though the brick coursing and details have been carefully matched. A late 20th or early 21st century entrance door has been inserted into this bay.

The ground floor interior has been heavily remodelled to allow the shop to extend into Norfolk House and the later rear addition. The late 20th century shop fittings and suspended ceilings at ground floor level are declared not to be of special architectural or historic interest.

The upper floors of Norfolk House and the corner block retain some historic joinery including panelled doors, architraves, and the upper part of the main stair, which features turned balusters and newels with pendants. Several cast iron fire surrounds remain.