Capel Court Upholstery Fabric & Foam Supplies

Terraced two-bay four-storey apartment building of c.1996, having commercial premises to ground floor with shopfront of possibly c.1900. Recent shopfront extension to west end of side (north) elevation. Corner articulated to each elevation by decorative panels with moulded surrounds having carved medallion motif over two-stage rectangular panel. Composite columns on raised, fluted, rounded plinth to corners. Fluted square-plan, projecting piers with foliate console brackets, forming support to projecting, moulded fascia with cornice, having egg-and-dart panels to ends with superimposed shield and wreath. Tripartite triple-centered-arch window openings with plate-glass display windows, and quadripartite triple-centered-arch window openings with fixed timber windows having recent steel grates to north elevation. Panelled stall-risers with decorative cast-iron grilles. Timber doorcase to front elevation comprising square-headed door opening housing original timber panelled door with cast-iron door furniture. Doorcase flanked by panelled timber piers with decorative console brackets supporting panelled, projecting frieze below dentillated cornice and pediment. Original granite kerbing to front.

This recently built structure is distinguished by the apparently Edwardian shopfront to its ground floor. It is one of four successive similar structures along Capel Street, an important thoroughfare laid out from c.1678 by Humphrey Jervis. Its surviving original features including a well-executed Composite column, decorative joinery and ironwork and an exceptional, Classical doorcase form a lively, fluid design. This striking shopfront, with its distinctive early twentieth-century architectural identity, enlivens the streetscape and adds depth of context to the early thoroughfare which was laid out from c.1678 by Humphrey Jervis to link the Essex Bridge to the Great North Road.