Bit of activity at the High Street end of The Corridor just recently with the arrival of another Society Cafe.
I have been watching the shop fitters and builders at work and have been fascinated by the lettering re-appearing on the fascia board above the shop window as layers of paint have been removed.
It’s a name that obviously pre-dates the canopy which was added to the Greek-styled entrance way in 1927.
Part of the lettering disappears behind it!
This covered avenue of shops was a speculative development of 1825 and one of the earliest examples of this building type outside of London.
I have found one early image of the entrance way – before the canopy was added – on http://www.bathintime.co.uk but the name does not seem to tie in with lettering now visible i.e an O and a W.
Got to thank Dan Brown at Bath in Time for coming back to me so quickly with an answer to our mystery. He tells me:
‘George Brown Haberdasher was at 19 Market Place in 1833. Bath Directory in the reference section of Bath Central Library.’
That most certainly ties in with our 0 and W and its interesting to find evidence of a firm in business just six years after this covered arcade opened.
Since writing this story they have been busy scraping paint off from the fascia board over the shop on the other side of The Corridor’s High Street entrance.
There is evidence of early lettering – though difficult to read.
