Builders and their buildings

Pair of semi-detached houses. Red brick. Slate roofs. Two substantial rectangular bays rising to attic height to create in effect a third storey additionally lit by a large dormer window between the two. Bays topped by pitched roofs. Dated 1899. Initials AD for A Diss on front wall.

Probably ERO D/B 6 Pb3/1359, 1899, A. Diss (owner and architect) [Not checked]

(Jaggers' list) [JB] Retained facade and front part of commercial premises, originally for the Co-Operative Society. Red brick with painted stucco dressings. Three storeys. Five bays, of which the outer bays are emphasised by quoins and have within them four-bay windows rising to triangular pediments. The centre bay contains a two-storey canted oriel, flanked by Ionic columns at second-floor level, and has a segmental pediment. Inscription 'Founded 1861' referring to the Colchester Co-Operative Society. Dentilled cornice. First-floor windows of Venetian type. [JB] Opened in 1905. ERO D/B 6 Pb3/1984, 1904, plan of shop, LONG WYRE Street, Colchester Co-operative Society (owner), Goodey and Cressall (architects), G. Dobson (builder) (not checked).

[Postcard of 1905 with kind permission of J Jephcott.]

Includes 21 Oxford Road (east side).
Large, very prominent corner building, on corner of Creffield Road and Oxford Road. Terrace of four houses. Uncoursed stone, clay tiles, ashlar dressings. Tower on corner - eccentric. Three gables to Creffield Road.
Built in 1886 by stonemason and architect L J Watts who must have bought material generated by the demolition of St Runwald's church, reworked what he could to make his cemetery memorials, and then disposed of the residue as building rubble in at least three different buildings which he designed: St Runwald's in Salisbury Avenue (1886), The Cloisters in Maldon Road (1886), and St Runwald's Terrace (1884).
Watts was an immensely successful Colchester businessman, a stonemason who pioneered mass production of tombstones and marble fireplaces from his works outside the Castle. The frequent Watts adverts in papers and magazines all over Metropolitan Essex, demonstrate the extent of this remarkable business (which still trades) by claiming 'over 9,000 cemetery monuments... in Essex.....London etc. in last 30 years'. Watts company still trading in the town.
Later St. Runwald's School. First head was possibly Mrs MacCauley.
ERO D/B 6 Pb2/381 1884 4 plans Building plan of houses, CREFFIELD ROAD, Colchester, for L.J. Watts (owner and architect) (not checked)

[JB] House, 1878, by George Lee (builder). White brick. Two storeys, with polygonal turret in the middle of the entrance front.
An interesting variation on the villa theme, characteristic of this quarter of Colchester. Plans in Essex Record Office (D/B 6/Pb2/111). [JB]

Substantial late Victorian house in white brick. Restrained design compared with its neighbours to the south. Double bays of full height. Some external changes. Windows probably not original. c 1880.

Probably ERO D/B 6 Pb2/111, 1878, Mr. Lee (owner), G. Lee (architect and builder). Needs to be checked since this might be No 6.]

(Jaggers' list)
One of four shops extending back along Short Wyre Street. Two-storey corner building with slate roof. Double two-pane sash windows. Gault brick with detailling provided by relief pattern bricks. Now painted. Designed in 1894 by G. Farran (architect and builder) for J.H. Clamp (owner). ERO D/B 6 Pb3/763 (not checked). Erected on the site of his old shop after a fire involving a famous murder case.

ERO holds: D/DJ 2/19/16 - 'Sale catalogue of commercial properties in ColcheSTer - Double fronted corner shop, 1 ST. BOTOLPH'S STreet, three lock-up shops, 1-3 Short Wyre Street, large shop with warehouses, 3 ST. BOTOLPH'S Street and Vineyard Street, large corner shop and lock up shop with residence above, and three-Storey warehouses, 4 ST. BOTOLPH'S Street and Vineyard Street, two shops 42-43 ST. BOTOLPH'S Street ...' (1919)

[In 1909, no 1 was the premises of Alderton Bros, Boot Merchants.]