Martin And Company

House, now shop. Built circa 1820–40 with later alterations and restorations. The building is constructed of brick faced with stucco, with a concealed roof and iron cresting above the shop front.

The three-storey front elevation on the Promenade features stucco detailing including end pilasters with sunk panels rising through the first and second floors. Above the first-floor window is a wide elliptically-arched recess on pilasters, the window itself having a tooled architrave. A continuous moulded sill band runs across the second floor, with a continuous crowning frieze and cornice above. The ground-floor shop front has turned mullions, frieze and cornice, with a central part-glazed door and overlight serving as the entrance.

The left return to Imperial Circus has a curved wall on plan and four first-floor windows. Similar stucco decoration continues here with pilasters at the ends and between storeys. The first-floor windows sit in taller and wider elliptically-arched reveals on pilasters. Second-floor windows have tooled architraves and Greek-key surrounds, and most windows retain original blind boxes. Late twentieth-century glazing now continues the shop front around this left return.

The original rear frontage survives largely intact on the ground floor: from left to right, a four-panel door with raised and fielded upper panels and flush lower panels, with overlight between pilaster strips; a pedimented stucco noticeboard on corbels; two fluted Doric three-quarter columns in entasis with a 1/1 sash window between them; and two further similar pedimented noticeboards with acroteria. A continuous entablature with Greek-key motif runs over these noticeboards, with the incised lettering 'IMPERIAL CIRCUS'. Further to the right are 1/1 sash windows in pilastered frames. The first-floor windows on the rear elevation are arranged similarly.

The interior retains many original features including a dogleg staircase with rod and bobbin balusters. The main showroom features a plaster frieze with cherubs and arch on pilasters.

The iron border above the shop front was added when balconies and hoods were removed from the building. This border is from MacFarlane's Saracen Foundry in Glasgow, catalogue number 884, seventh edition.

According to Rowe's Cheltenham Guided (written 1845, published 1850), this was the establishment of Messrs Martin, Baskett and Martin, Jewellers and Watchmakers to the Queen, with two frontages described as 'chaste and elegant design'. The Promenade was laid out in 1818 as a tree-lined avenue connecting the Colonnade in High Street to Sherborne Spa. By 1826 it had become a carriage drive with spacious gravelled walks on each side. Buildings on the north-west side were developed first. Although originally lined with elegant houses on both sides, by 1845 nearly the entire left-hand south-east side had been converted to professional or business establishments. The building occupies an important corner position at the junction of the Promenade and Imperial Circus.