Building MPM2050 - 24-28 Albert Road, Southsea

Terrace of three late-19th century shops with lodgings above built in the c1870s. The terrace is situated between the two towers of the Kings Theatre, the latter having been built around the shops in 1906-07.

A row of three terraced buildings, thought to date from the 1870s, consisting of shops with lodgings above, sited between the two towers of the Kings Theatre [MPM405] on Albert Road. The shops are included in the listing for the Kings Theatre [DPM407].

MATERIALS: brick, with stuccoed frontages. The roofs are tiled and slated; there are brick stacks.

PLAN: each building has a rectangular footprint, with a projecting stair wing to the rear; these wings were originally longer, but were rebuilt in truncated form as part of the development of the theatre.

EXTERIOR: the front elevations have a restrained Italianate character, the ground-floor shopfronts separated by rusticated pilasters, and the fascias separated by pulvinated consoles. Each shopfront has a doorway set between canted plate-glass windows in basket-arched timber frames; the panelled stallrisers survive to number 26, and tiled entrances survive to all three. Above ground-floor level, the houses are separated by pilasters, with paired console corbels supporting a heavy cornice. There is a panelled parapet above with ball finials above the pilasters; the parapet is not original to the row, but was added shortly after the opening of the theatre in 1907. Above number 24 the parapet has lost its detailing. On the first floor each house has a large canted oriel window with segmental-headed glazing, and above that are pairs of narrow windows in moulded architraves. The second-floor windows rest on a moulded storey-band. The rear elevations are of brick, with segmental arched window openings; the rear elevations of the rebuilt stair-wings are blind.

INTERIOR: though the interiors are of some interest as later-C19 shops with lodgings above, there has been much alteration, and those historic features which do remain are of fairly standard types; the interiors are therefore considered to be of lesser interest. Each building originally had a ground-floor shop with a room behind; the partition survives only in number 26. Though the small rear room survives here, the chimneypiece has been replaced, as have others within this building. Numbers 24 and 26 have shuttered display compartments behind the shop windows. Each building has a very tight stair within its compact stair tower, branching to reach the first and second floors; bulbous moulded newel posts survive. Within the lodging areas some doors, architraves, skirting and cornicing survive. In each building, the first-floor oriel window has a window-seat or deep cill. Painted stone chimneypieces with chamfered jambs and moulded brackets survive in the upper rooms to number 24. Number 28 has been subject to the greatest alteration, with few features surviving; the upper floors are in use as offices and the building is linked with the theatre at first-floor level.

The shop buildings at numbers 24-28 Albert Road remained distinct from the theatre, and historically were not connected internally. In 1911 number 24 Albert Road was occupied by a tobacconist, number 26 by a photographer, and number 28 by a hairdresser. The buildings continued in use as shops into the C21, though all are now closed. The Kings Theatre has owned number 28 since 2012 and the building is in use as theatre storage and offices, with an internal connection to the theatre building; numbers 24 and 26 are empty. All three have been altered internally, to differing degrees.

Historic England, The National Heritage List for England (Index). SPM35.