Spa Shop And Waltons Of Mere (Walton Building)

This late 19th-century commercial building stands on the corner of Manor Road in Mere. It is constructed of painted rendering, with a bitumenised Welsh slate roof. The design is a vigorous commercial style, contributing significantly to the townscape, with particular attention to the corner detailing.

The front of the building, facing the square, is two storeys high and features pilasters at ground floor level. Corinthianesque columns are attached and rise to an upper floor, blocked course and parapet are returned into Manor Road. The ground floor has three-light plate glass windows with slender cast-iron colonnettes to basket-handle heads, flanked by deep recessed glazed double doors with overlights. Four pilasters support a frieze concealed by 20th-century fascias. A further pair of glazed doors and overlight are located to the far right. The upper floor has two three-light arched plate glass windows with dividing colonnettes to the cill, resting on heavy brackets, and projecting keystones above the arches. Four columns carry a moulded, dentilled cornice projecting at the column capitals. The return to the left features similar details, including a two-light and a one-light shop window with three pilasters and a moulded plinth, and arched openings. A coped gable is present to the left. The quadrant corner has a lofty, sunk panel beneath a shouldered arched head and foot at a lower level.

The section of the building along Manor Road is a simpler wing, with plain tiles, divided into two units. The first part has a blocked shop window beneath two three-light casement windows in moulded jambs and cornice. To the left, at first floor level, are two three-light windows that match those in the previous section. Broad, plain bands correspond to the column podia on the main section’s facade.

The interior has been largely modified, but retains a tall, quatre-lobed iron column, a rare example of the ‘Battey Langley’ gothic style. The building remains externally largely unaltered and makes a coherent and positive statement.