These examples of Home & Colonial stores were spotted after The Legacy of Home & Colonial Stores was first posted. If additional shops come to light, they will be posted here. Contributions happily accepted!
Eastbourne
I have no documentary evidence for this one – spotted at 47 Seaside Road, Eastbourne, on a quick drive-past – but the design of the windows is a bit of a give-away! Now a launderette.
Eastbourne
Hove
74 Westgate Road, Hove (c. Kathryn Ferry, 2020)
The lobby floor of the former Home & Colonial Stores at 74 Western Road, Hove. Except for this ‘H&C’ mosaic, the shop conformed to others in the parade rather than the company house style. Discovered by Kathryn Ferry.
Monmouth
Former Home & Colonial Stores, 14 Monnow Street, Monmouth
The Blue Cross charity shop at 14 Monnow Street, Monmouth, retains a well-preserved Home & Colonial Stores shopfront. It occupies a plain two-bay 19th-century building. According to the Post Office Directory of 1914, the premises were then occupied by Mrs Fanny Yeates, a boot and shoe maker. Although Home & Colonial had numerous outlets in Wales by 1914, it had not yet opened in Monmouth. It seems likely, therefore, that the essential features of the present shopfront date from the 1920s, or even the 1930s.
Monmouth: detail of brass and timber stall plate
Highly characteristic of the Home & Colonial house style are the ox-blood tiles – with chamfered edges, laid in the fashion of Flemish bond – and the brass stall plate displaying the name ‘THE HOME & COLONIAL TEA STORES’. The very slender pilasters and consoles to either side of the shopfront are also typical of Home & Colonial shopfitting. One very common – even diagnostic – feature of the brand, however, is missing. Instead of the usual multi-coloured bottle-glass transom lights, here we have opaque panes with a more modern design of horizontal banding. No doubt the original glass was replaced, either by Home & Colonial itself, or by a later occupant of the shop. The terrazzo floor of the lobby may also represent later modernisation.
Monmouth: light fitting from exterior
While the interior of this shop has been modernised, it retains two Home & Colonial light fittings in the window.
Monmouth: light fittings from lobby
Tiverton
Former Home & Colonial Stores, 33 Fore Street, Tiverton
‘Number 33’ Fore Street in Tiverton – now a bakery – is a classic example of a Home & Colonial Stores shopfront. It has coloured bottle-glass transom lights, ox-blood tiles, and a black and white chequered lobby floor. The narrow consoles have a similar – but not identical – moulding to that in Monmouth (see above). This suggests that Home & Colonial employed different shopfitters at different sites, but expected them to work broadly to the same designs. ‘Home & Colonial’ lettering might well survive underneath the modern fascia.
Tiled stall risers, Tiverton
Transom lights, Tiverton
