By David Borrett
If anybody were to be asked what building in pre-development Andover should have been saved from the wrecking ball, many would cite Scott’s shoe shop.
The later colour photograph was taken by Jeffery Saunders in 1968-69 while the shop was still in business.
Much would have been going on behind with wholesale demolitions of the entire area in readiness for the new precinct but the shops facing the High Street, both behind the Guildhall and a little way up the street, were the last to go.
No one could deny Scott’s was a pretty building from tip to toe with its roof-level dormer windows topped with intricate ridge-tiling and finials, decorative window surrounds and a street-facing bay.
Below all that is a ground floor grandly conceived with brick half-pillars, capitals and rosettes either side of a double-fronted shop.
Twin curved windows that allow for imaginative displays and three stone steps leading to inset front doors complete the picture of what we might enthusiastically call a real period piece before wondering exactly what period it might be.
When the building was demolished it became obvious that the whole of the façade was a shell, covering up a much older central core.
The exterior was essentially a fake, constructed to give a much grander appearance.
The date of its conversion has been stated elsewhere as 1835 but this is far too early.
The Victorians were keen revivers of earlier architectural styles which they mixed and matched, introducing new features of ornamentation that would never have been used before and this is plainly seen here.
Indeed, the building’s exterior decoration is very reminiscent of late-Victorian furniture of the 1880-90 period – those half pillars with their tramline decoration and rosettes would not be out of place on a large Victorian wardrobe.
In the 18th century, the Scott’s building was a grocer’s shop, run in 1784 by Jeremiah Bunny (as recorded in the Hampshire Directory of that year).
Before that it was occupied by one Blundy Buck Bunny, probably Jeremiah’s father, and going back further, William Brice.
Deeds refer to it as the Corner House, probably not the name of the grocery shop but just a descriptive term.
The occupants during most of the 19th century were members of the Poore family.
John Poore (1794-1875) started a brewing business in works that lay behind the house sometime after he came out of the navy following the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
The date is likely 1819 as an early trade mark bears that year with the words ‘Ye Poore of Andover’ written around the image of what looks like a poor man – a local play on words.
The Corner House was a large building and incorporated living accommodation behind, which included rooms to the roof-space, as well as the separate commercial area facing the street.
Whether John Poore occupied the building from the time when he started or took over the brewery is unclear.
Deed evidence suggests he leased it in 1824 from E B Bunny for a 14-year term at a rent of £80 per annum, but 10 years later he bought it outright for £1,500.
During John Poore’s lifetime, he kept the building as it was but after he died the business was taken on by his son Philip Henry Poore and he almost certainly upgraded the street frontages with extensive building work.
Apart from any stylistic evidence, a photograph of the High Street of the c1865 period clearly shows a building quite different from what it subsequently became.
After John Poore died, in 1875, but before 1881, the remaining members of the Poore family moved to Newbury (now Priory) Lodge in Newbury Street.
The new proprietor of the brewery was John’s son, Philip Henry Poore, known as the Major.
He already had a house at Highfield in Weyhill Road (now Rookwood School), so the High Street house eventually became the home of brewery foreman Thomas Tilbury.
The census of 1881 reveals that 51 High Street was then uninhabited due to ‘building work’, while a chance mention in the Andover Chronicle in March of that year reports on how ‘a great improvement is being made to the somewhat bald appearance of our High Street’ and records that the design for the new-look premises was by local architect Alfred Purkiss and the building work carried out by Messrs Annett & Sons.
One of the children at that time was William Thomas Tilbury who in 1995, when aged 91, wrote down some memories of his time there.
He described it as a lovely rambling old house with 14 rooms, a butler’s pantry and a line of bells on the wall connecting the various rooms by bell pulls.
There was a front and back staircase, a cellar and a huge kitchen. The front door was at what would later become 53 High Street, where another shop – Teague and King’s - was constructed after the brewery was sold up.
Evidently the house extended over the top of the ground floor office as Mr Tilbury remembers lovely views to the south of the High Street from the attic windows, watching all the activities at the Town Hall and beyond.
Clearly Nos 51 and 53 were once one building and only the brewery offices facing down the High Street were separate.
As the 1900s’ postcard shows, the extensive shop windows were not part of the Purkiss design but were added later.
When the brewery closed down in 1920, the house was sold to music sellers E Price for £4,700 and this was the first time the building became a retail shop, which they called Handel House.
Price’s had earlier been at 36 High Street in the building that was later to become Boot’s.
However, it was a few years before the firm moved in, as when in 1924 a series of aerial views of the town were taken, it is clear that the refurbishments were only then in progress.
Moreover, Kelly’s Directory for 1923 lists Price’s still at 36 High Street but it seems strange that such an extensive building in which Price’s had invested £4,700 would lie empty for up to four years.
It was not until 1932 that Arthur Bertie Scott bought the building for £3,000 from Price’s.
At this time, the 1930s’ depression was at its deepest and this is reflected in the value.
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In November 1933, he let the rear part to Messrs Teague and King, who already had premises in Winchester; they built a new double-fronted shop, altering the frontage of the building in the upper High Street.
Meanwhile, Scott had opened his new shoe shop at 51 High Street, and this was continued by his son until town development, when the shop was sadly demolished.
If you are interested in local history, why not join Andover History and Archaeology Society? Details can be found at www.andoverlocalhistoryarchaeology.uk
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