Summary
Parade of shops, built in 1864, probably to designs by the architect Henry Currey. Remodelled in 1900 and cast-iron canopy added in 1909.
Reasons for Designation
Legacy Record – This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
History
The history of Buxton is inextricably linked to the geothermal spring waters which emerge in the centre of the town. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area spans over 6,000 years and the Romans developed a bathing resort there in the C1 AD, the only other Roman spa town in Britain besides Bath. By the late C15, the town’s spring was known as a holy well dedicated to St Anne and a chapel had been built there in her honour. Buxton’s popularity boomed during the late C18 and C19 with ever-increasing numbers of tourists drawn to the purported health-giving properties of the town’s spring water. From around 1780 local landowners, the Dukes of Devonshire, developed Buxton into a fashionable spa town on the model of Bath and over the next century, they commissioned a series of buildings to provide for the hospitality of visitors, including grand townhouses, hotels, cultural venues and thermal baths.
The Colonnade was built in 1864 as a parade of shops adjoining the Hot Baths, which had been rebuilt by the architect, Henry Currey, in 1852-1853. It is probable that Currey was also responsible for the design of the parade, known as the Hot Bath Colonnade. As built, the parade’s elevation comprised a glazed, cast-iron arcade. In 1900 the parade was remodelled, with the cast iron arcades removed and the elevations re-fronted in ashlar sandstone from the local Nithen quarry. In 1909 a new cast-iron canopy was added around the parade and the adjoining Hot Baths, of which only the eastern section along the Colonnade now survives. The Hot Baths closed to the public in 1963 and were left redundant for many years. In the mid-1980s, they were redeveloped as a shopping arcade – the Cavendish Arcade – with a new barrel-vaulted roof added over the former baths. An entrance was provided from The Quadrant, replacing one of the shop units (number 2) of the Colonnade.
Henry Currey was an English architect and surveyor who developed a successful career mainly designing public buildings. Having trained under Decimus Burton and William Cubitt, he worked extensively for the Devonshire Estate and designed many public buildings in Buxton during the mid-C19, predominantly in an Italianate style, including the Thermal and Natural Baths and the Palace Hotel, along with several churches. Aside from his work for the Devonshire Estate, Currey was responsible for many public buildings in London, some built in his roles as architect and surveyor to St Thomas’ Hospital, Coram’s Foundling Hospital and Magdalen Hospital. He was a made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1856 and served as its vice-president from 1874-1877 and 1889-1893. He was also a fellow of the Surveyors’ Institute (now the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors).
Details
Parade of shops, built in 1864, probably to designs by the architect Henry Currey. Remodelled in 1900 and cast-iron canopy added in 1909.
MATERIALS: the parade is constructed in ashlar sandstone, now mostly concealed behind smooth render, with timber and glass shopfronts and a roof covering of slate. The colonnade along the eastern elevation is of cast iron and glass.
EXTERIOR: the building is a single-storey range of shop units within eight segmental-arched openings and two additional flat-headed openings on the north end of the range. The three southernmost arches were remodelled in the late C20 and are unified as a single shop unit, with fully glazed shopfronts above a granite plinth. The four intermediate bays house separate shop units with matching timber shop fronts of a tripartite design, comprising three round arches rising up from the stall riser, within a segmental arched frame, and a doorway within the southernmost arch (at number 3 the doorway is in the northernmost arch). The northernmost segmental-arched opening now contains an entrance to the Cavendish Shopping Arcade adjoining to the west. The northernmost bay of the parade is an ashlar sandstone-faced shop unit with large windows within a timber frame, with a stone parapet. Adjoining the parade to the south is an ashlar sandstone-faced section of the former Thermal Baths, now converted into a shopping arcade. The west elevation of The Colonnade also adjoins the shopping arcade. A glazed canopy runs across the length of the eastern elevation of the building. It comprises eighteen, ornate, cast-iron columns on stone or concrete plinths, with floriated spandrels and a frieze with an interlocking circles design, supporting a curved glass roof with cast-iron ridge detail.
INTERIOR: it is understood that when first listed in 1970, number 5 The Colonnade, formerly Blezard’s The Chemist, contained fine shop fittings likely dating the C19.
Address formerly listed as 1-6 The Colonnade.
Listing NGR: SK0585073604
