Madame Wrights Ormond Terrace

This is a house, now a shop, built around 1820-1834, as shown on Merrett’s Map of 1834, with significant later alterations. The alterations, including raising the upper part to the right and a shop front, were carried out in 1924-1925 by Healing and Overbury of Cheltenham, with the shop front designed by Frederick Sage and Company of London for Emily Cooper (née Wright). The building is stucco over brick with a glazed shop front featuring metal glazing bars and a coloured marble surround. A concealed roof has a brick ridge stack on the left and a stuccoed stack at the right end.

The exterior is three storeys high with eight first-floor windows. The original windows were 6/6 sashes, and later 1/1 lugged sashes, with the left windows being blind. There is a decorative frieze and cornice. The shop front comprises five bays divided by marble pilasters, a plinth, frieze, and cornice. A central entrance is flanked by bays with curved glass and a frieze. The left return has three storeys and three first-floor windows with 2/2 horizontal-pane sashes and a first-floor band. A 20th-century door with overlight provides access to the left.

Inside, the left-hand part of the building features a dogleg staircase with stick balusters and a mahogany handrail. The shop area has oak panelling and a staircase with bulbous balusters and carved newel posts, as well as a chimneypiece to the left.

Historically, the original house faced Ormond Terrace and Regent Street, featuring three storeys, three first-floor windows, three windows in depth with a service wing, and was raised to full height when purchased for Madame Wright's shop. The shop front’s designers, Frederick Sage, had an international clientele, and the proprietor, Mrs Cooper, had seen their work in Paris. A contemporary newspaper article in 1925 described it as one of the finest and most modern in the West of England, adding greatly to the attractions of Cheltenham. The building occupies an important corner site, visually connecting the Promenade to Regent Street and is part of a group with numbers 2, 3 and 4 Ormond Terrace and numbers 5-8 (consecutive) Ormond Terrace, Regent Street. The building is a rare surviving example of a fine shop front from the 1920s.