WH Smith, 44 High Street

WH Smith, 44 High Street

A shop of 19th-century origin, rebuilt in 1926 with a former lending library to the first floor by Frank C Bayliss for WH Smith & Son. The building has undergone alterations in the late 20th and 21st centuries.

The structure is constructed of brick, with areas rebuilt in the 21st century using other materials. The first-floor exterior is clad in panels of lead sheeting with lead rainwater goods.

The first floor comprises a single room with a barrel-vaulted clerestorey. The original access from the floor below has been removed.

The first-floor exterior of No. 44 (to the left) features three early 20th-century, 20-pane timber-framed bowed windows encased in lead panels with decorative reliefs. The scheme consists of four vertical sections separating the windows, with symbols taken from the coats of arms of nearby locations. The left-hand section represents the City of Bath, with a carving of a bear, the city's shield and the motto "Floreat Bathon". The section to the left of centre has a dragon, representing Somerset. That to the right of centre has a cherub, a banner, letter t's, a crown, and the mottoes "Sigillum Burgi-De Taunton" and "Defendamus", representing the county town of Taunton. The right-hand section represents Bristol and includes a unicorn and the motto "Virtue et industria". Above the windows is a frieze, the centre of which carries the inscription: "COME AND TAKE CHOICE OF ALL MY LIBRARY / AND SO BEGUILE THY SORROW", a quote from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (Act 4, Scene 1), carved in the official font of WH Smith created in 1903 by Eric Gill. The frieze is further embellished with vines, Tudor roses and a hunting scene. A half-height second floor, set back in the manner of a clerestorey, has three 12-pane timber-framed windows, with a similar arrangement on the east side. To either side are castellated lead hoppers with a relief carving of a lion's head at the centre, linked by a horizontal decorative lead band at eaves level, beneath the pitched roof.

The ground-floor shopfronts extend to the neighbouring building No. 42, which was accommodated within WH Smith in the late 20th century. The shopfronts are of 21st-century date, with elevations faced in stone, plate glass windows with modern frames and shop fascia.

The interior features of note are to the first-floor former lending library, accessed from a rear door to the 20th-century flat-roofed extension to the shop. The east and west ends of the former library room are overhung by a small clerestorey level with three windows to each side below a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The north and south walls have decorative neo-Tudor plasterwork at upper level, including a twisted rope detail that is continued around the clerestorey windows. The upper parts of the walls have a frieze with rustic scenes and further detailing to the ceiling. The flat ceiling above the location of the former stair has decorative plasterwork including a cornice with an end stop to the south corner depicting a man holding a leather-bound book. The former locations of three bow windows in the east wall are covered with boarding. Modern railings divide the floor area where the location of the former stair has a modern floor structure but no coverings and is open to the shop ceiling below. The other floor areas are covered in pine boards. There are no other fittings of note to the shop.