Morris & Co., General Cambrain Establishment (former Drapers Shop)

Morris & Co., General Cambrian Establishment (former Drapers Shop)

This is a Grade II* listed building comprising a Victorian shop with attached house, demonstrating exceptional architectural and historical interest through its remarkably preserved interiors.

Shop Exterior

The shop is constructed of snecked dressed stone with rusticated quoins and open pilasters, detailed in plain stone. The hipped slate roof has corbelled eaves and four large stacks with simple moulded caps. The three-storey frontage is symmetrically arranged with three windows to the upper floors.

The ground floor features a tripartite shop window to the centre with depressed arched heads and canted returns to flanking recessed entrances. Glazed double doors and fanlights bear enamelled lettering reading "Morris and Son". Two-light shop windows flank these at the ends, with rusticated pilasters at ground level. A moulded wooden fascia with bracketed cornice, returned around the southeast side, carries contemporary enamelled lettering: "General Cambrian Establishment Drapers."

The first floor has a central two-light window with narrow two-pane sashes, plain entablature and moulded segmental pediment. Flanking tripartite windows feature plain triangular pediments. A plain cill band is returned around the sides. The second floor contains two-pane sashes flanked by double sashes. Similar fenestration appears on the east return wall.

To the left of the main facade is a recessed entrance bay serving the house, with a four-panelled recessed door with glazed upper panels and plain fanlight lettered "Glan Glasfor." Between this bay and the southeast return wall of the shop extends a fine cast iron glazed open verandah, supported on four fluted composite columns with scrolled and pierced decorative brackets. The wooden entablature features egg-and-dart moulding. Decorative dwarf railings with spear-head finials surmount the structure, with similar railings to the open southeast side. A matching gate and gatepiers face the street, with a plain stone corner pier. The floor is laid in geometric tiles. Adjoining the shopfront to the right, a pair of Art Nouveau iron gates provide access to a narrow alley, spanned above by a decorative scrolled arch with a large central former gas lamp.

House Exterior (Glan Glasfor)

The house adjoins to the rear and has four storeys plus attics with a raised ground floor and stepped, parapeted access. A single-storey projecting porch has a flat lead roof and moulded cornice. Recessed six-panel double doors with frosted glass fan above are lettered "Glan Glasfor."

Three-storey flanking canted bay windows with a slightly recessed central section feature plain Victorian two-pane sashes, plain cill courses, rusticated quoins and a bracketed eaves band. The flanking bays have shallow gables with simply moulded bargeboards and decorative finial bases (finials now missing), with arched sash windows within. Between the first and second floors of the central recessed bay is a plain plaque inscribed in raised lettering: "Glan Glasfor 1885." Modern flat-roofed dormers have been added to each face of the roof.

Shop Interior

The shop interior, occupying two floors, is almost entirely unaltered and is of outstanding interest. Pine and mahogany joinery throughout, with moulded and polychromed plasterwork to all major rooms. The original paint finish survives in two shades of green with a stencilled dado band. All original fittings, doors and door furniture, including stained and frosted glass, remain intact.

The shop hall contains original fixed shelving, glazed cupboards and central and perimeter counters with suspended brass rails above (for displaying cloth). The counters feature dentilated and scrolled cornices. A central upper gallery supported on cast iron columns overlooks the shop hall, accessed via a remarkable open corkscrew stair with swept mahogany rail, turned balusters and boarded underside. The treads and risers are covered in embossed and gilded leather with lead treadplates. The upper gallery has a similar balustrade and a fitted bench along part of its length; this area was originally the ladies fitting room. It contains a large wall mirror and further fitted drawers and glazed cupboards.

Opening from this is the dress-making work room, with double part-glazed doors lettered accordingly. The entrance features an arched, moulded design with carved head corbels, all polychromed. Off the ground-floor shop hall is the office, containing large wall mirrors, a moulded slate fireplace with foliate brackets and an original "Star Safe" by J.R. Brooks. The desk, leather-bound ledgers, calendars and other original contents survive.

House Interior

The house has geometric tiled floors to both front and rear entrance halls with corbelled cornices and pitch-pine doors. An embossed fictive leather dado is present. A narrow well stair on three floors has pine panelled sides, alternate turned balusters and a mahogany rail.

In the basement is a bell-rack with 22 numbered bells and a counterchanged tiled floor. Plain fireplaces and ranges serve the former kitchen and servants' hall, with glazed built-in cupboards and bracketed shelves.