17 Main Street

Summary

Commercial premises, built in 1893 to architectural designs of Josiah Gunton, now (2025) a heritage centre.

Reasons for Designation

The former commercial premises at 17 Main Street, Littleport, built in 1893 to architectural designs by Josiah Gunton is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest:

* for its design by local architect Josiah Gunton, who designed many Methodist churches in Cambridgeshire and has a number of listed buildings to his name; it is a relatively early and technologically ambitious work by the young architect;
* for the high proportion of survival of the 1890s shopfront, plan form, and commercial interior;
* for the wealth of internal fixtures dating from the time of construction, including a display window, and lengths of mid-C19 shelving (relocated from a chemist in Ely) and late-C19 shelving.

Historic Interest:

* as a building which remained in commercial use as an ironmongers and hardware shop for over 100 years and has been carefully conserved as a heritage centre.

Group value:

* it forms a strong historic and functional group with other listed buildings on Main Street, including 15 High Street (known as Fenland), a house built around 1800 (listed at Grade II), and the barn and outbuildings to the rear of 15 High Street (listed at Grade II).

History

The former commercial building at 17 Main Street was purpose-built in 1893 for local ironmongers H and J Cutlack. Henry and John Cutlack opened their High Street store in Ely in 1841 supplying everything from horseshoe nails to agricultural implements and carried out repairs on-premises. Their second premises at Littleport provided the same goods and services, with a forge located behind the shop. The original manager of the Littleport store John Henry Adams purchased the business in 1901 and began trading as J H Adams and Sons. In 1920 they became the sole agent for Hagen Norwegian ice skates, a lightweight metal-bladed speed skate popular with fen skaters. Adams imported the skates from Oslo and set up a distribution network across the UK, as well as selling directly from the shop in Littleport, where upstairs they had a specialised area for trying on and fitting skates. Adams also offered a follow-on service for sharpening and setting the skate blades. The shelving at 17 Main Street bears a label on one of its drawers indicating it was relocated from ‘LINCOLNE, DISPENSING AND FAMILY CHEMIST, HIGH STREET, ELY, ESTABLISHED 1847’; additional late C19 shelving was also acquired for the shop. Commercial business at 17 Main Street ceased in 2010 and the building has since been adapted for use as a heritage centre, with a residential unit occupying the majority of the first floor.

The building was constructed by a local builder from Southery and designed by Manea-born architect Josiah Gunton (1861-1930) of the London firm of Gordon, Lowther and Gunton. Gunton trained as an architectural assistant and was articled to the architectural firm of Gordon and Lowther where he became a partner in 1885. After the death of Lowther in 1900, the practice continued as Gordon and Gunton and specialised in commercial buildings after the First World War. Throughout his architectural career Gunton specialised in the design of Methodist chapels, and his works include St John’s Methodist Church and the Constitutional Hall in Littleport (neither listed), and Methodist chapels in Cambridge (not listed), Doddington (listed at Grade II), Ely (not listed), Manea (demolished), March (listed at Grade II) and Stretham (not listed). Later in life, Gunton served as a City of London Alderman and was a member of the London County Council for the Municipal Reform Party (allied to Conservatives) from 1928 until his death in 1930.

Details

Former commercial premises, built in 1893 to architectural designs by Josiah Gunton, now a heritage centre and residential unit.

MATERIALS: the roof has a slate covering, the structure is steel framed, the walls are of red or gault brick, and the shopfront has cast-iron window frames and plate-glass windows. The interior is clad in pine and the exposed roof trusses are steel.

PLAN: the building is rectangular on plan, facing north to Main Street.

EXTERIOR: the two-storey commercial building faces north onto Main Street and has slate-covered roofs with terracotta ridge tiles. The shopfront is gabled to the north (principal elevation) and east (side elevation); the gables are half-timbered with plain bargeboards to overhanging eaves, that to the east having a collar and struts. Each gable formerly had a terracotta finial to its apex however these no longer survive. Giant red brick piers at the north-west, north-east and south-east corners of the shopfront are glazed to the ground floor and have a moulded brick entablature at first floor level. The ground and first floor fascias are of steel girders, each with a plain cornice, and the lettering ‘J.H. ADAMS & SONS’ is applied to the front ground floor fascia. The ground and first floors have large plate-glass display windows in slender, shoulder-arched cast-iron frames, four bays to the front, and two to the side. The ground floor has a chamfered sill over a panelled stallriser, one panel to each bay. The two bays on each side of the north-east corner are recessed, entered from Main Street via folding wrought-iron gates, dated 1892 and partially replaced. The recessed porch has a tiled floor of small, square black and white tiles within a diamond margin, and a mirrored ceiling. The angled entrance door is half-glazed with a timber panel to the lower part, decorative etched lettering ‘H & J CUTLACK / IRONMONGERS’ and a fleur-de-lis to the glazing, and hand-painted lettering of ‘ADAMS & SONS’ over, and a plain rectangular overlight. Beyond the shopfront, the building is constructed of gault brick, and the east side has four bays of segmental-arched windows with red brick voussoirs, containing single-pane, timber-framed sash windows; the northmost bay of the ground floor has a four-panelled door, the upper panels of which are glazed, and a plain rectangular overlight. The south gable retains its central and east window on the first floor; the west side of the first floor and the ground floor are no longer visible following construction of the attached building around 2012.

INTERIOR: the steel-framed structure enables a large open plan at ground and first floor levels; the majority of the first floor has been partitioned off as a residential unit, and only a rectangular-plan section of the first floor of the commercial unit remains, accessible from the stairs along the east wall. The steel scissor-truss roof is exposed over the first floor of the commercial unit and is boxed-in in the residential unit. Within the commercial unit, the walls and ceilings are clad in pine. Along the west wall of the ground floor are long lengths of full-height, mid-C19 wooden shelving, relocated in 1893 from Lincolne’s chemist in Ely, established in 1847. The fitted shelving has a cornice with ovolo moulding, shouldered frames to pairs of shelves with ornate carvings and slender engaged columns with foliated capitals over long octagonal plinths. Under the shelves are rows of 177 drawers, arranged in sections of either 4 or 6 rows. Below the rows of drawers are two rows of storage bins. The long, straight stair along the south end of the east wall has square newel posts with ball finials, a plain handrail, turned stick balusters, and a wooden stair gate of the same design on the half-landing of the stair. Inside the display windows of the principal elevation, two wooden-framed, 12-pane sliding doors grant access to the display windows. A former L-plan cash office in the south-west corner was enlarged around 2012 to provide a rectangular-plan kitchenette. The floor is timber boarded; it retains the channels of a former steam heating system, formerly with cast-iron grates however these no longer survive. At first-floor level, the balustrade continues around the rectangular-plan stair well. The west wall (introduced around 2012) has a long length of late-C19 shelving bearing the makers mark of ‘F E & G MAUND / COMPLETE SHOP FITTERS / 336, OLD ST LONDON’; this shelving was previously located along the west wall of the first floor. The late-C19 shelving has a long cornice and shelves over a workbench, under which are sliding doors to cupboards at the south end and shelves at the north end, separated by foliated console brackets. The first-floor residential unit, accessed from the neighbouring building to the south, retains mid-C19 shelving along the south end of the west wall (similar to that on the ground floor, but with only shelves and no drawers), and late-C19 shelving north of the mid-C19 shelving.

Sources

Websites
Cambridge Film Works, 'The Shope That Time Forgot', accessed 17 January 2025 from https://www.cambridgefilmworks.com/the-shop-that-time-forgot/
Adams Heritage Centre Littleport, accessed 17 January 2025 from https://www.adamsheritagecentre.co.uk/#HomeHistoryofAdams

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