Making a rare visit to a near-empty Oxford Street, I had the opportunity to get a phtograph of this fantastic late-Victorian building unobscured by passers-by.
313 Oxford Street was built in the 1870s, and its stucco flourishes show some of the exuberance of the period. (The shopfront below is, of course, a much later alteration.) It is Grade II listed, and the listing text apprpriately describes it as 'eclectic'!
Perhaps most striking are the statutes at second-floor level, and there is an intriguing suggestion in the listing text that they might originally have supported lanterns. A closer look confirms that both figures have an arm outstretched, perfectly poised for holding a light. In fact, their forearms are so elongated it's hard to think of another explanation!
4 comments:
Thank you. I've often admired this wonderfully peculiar building, but have never been able to find whose shop it originally was.
105-9 Oxford Street, the building with terracotta beavers on top, is easier to research. It was the shop of Henry Heath the hatter, who prospered in a time when everyone, rich or poor, wore a hat. The beavers are, of course, a reference to the use of their fur in making hats. The skins were prepared with a solution of mercuric nitrate which attacked workers' nervous systems, hence the expression 'mad a a hatter'. Heath's factory building also survives at the back of the shop, in Hollen Street.
I was surprised not to find more about this shop, given the prominent location! Maybe when I can return to libraries...
According to Bob Speel, the building was originally the Noah’s Ark Tavern of 1890. See http://www.speel.me.uk/sculptlondon/oxfordstcircw.htm.
What a pleasure to see Caroline’s Miscellany back!
Thank you - and thank you for that fantastic link!
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