We repaint shopfronts and commercial frontages in Delapre, about 0.9 miles south of Northampton town centre. Premises here are few: a corner shop on Delapre Crescent, the supermarket and filling station on London Road, and the hospitality venues on the listed abbey estate. Dean quotes each one free.
A residential district with only a handful of shops
Delapre is mainly housing. The 1930s streets west of London Road were built as homes, and its commercial premises are limited: Delapre Crescent Stores, a corner convenience shop among the terraces; the Asda supermarket and the Far Cotton Service Station on London Road; and the café, restaurant and events spaces within the Delapre Abbey estate. For a proper parade you have to cross into Far Cotton, whose shops line St Leonard’s Road; see our Far Cotton area page.
That shapes the work here. A Delapre shopfront job is usually a single frontage rather than one unit on a parade, and the people most aware of the work are customers who walk round from nearby houses.
The corner shop among the terraces
A corner shop in a 1930s terrace has houses on either side and often a flat or living space above. That changes how we plan the job compared with a high street unit:
- Noisy or dusty prep, such as scraping a fascia board or wire brushing a shutter box, is timed so it does not start too early for the neighbours.
- Parking is on residential streets, so we keep the van tidy and away from neighbours’ frontages.
- The entrance is painted at the quietest point of the trading day, with wet paint signs and a clear way in.
- Sign boards, frames and the stallriser are done in stages so the shop never looks closed.
Corner shops often take knocks from deliveries and bins at ground level, so a harder-wearing finish on the stallriser and door frame is worth considering. Roller shutters and their boxes are worth a look too. A shutter box faded to a different shade from the fascia beside it makes a fresh repaint look unfinished, so we price them together and you can decide whether to include them.
Frontages on London Road
Premises facing London Road sit on the A508 trunk road, opposite the tree-lined park boundary. Paint there collects traffic grime and leaf debris, and the access works around customers’ cars and a busy pavement. National chains on that stretch tend to set brand colours from head office, so if you manage a site here, check their specification first. Where we are asked to quote, we follow the given colour references and plan the work around opening hours and forecourt traffic.
Listed buildings at the abbey
The café in the converted Orangery, the restaurant and the wedding and events spaces are inside the Grade II* Delapre Abbey estate, within the Delapre Park Conservation Area, and several buildings there are listed in their own right. Any painting on them needs listed building consent and paints suited to historic fabric: breathable mineral paint or limewash on ironstone and lime, and traditional finishes on old joinery. The trust’s ‘A Stable Future’ wellbeing scheme for the old stables would sit under the same controls. Work of this kind is agreed with the estate and the council’s conservation officers before it starts.
For the full approach to working while a business stays open, see our main shopfront painting service. Other work we cover in the area is on the Delapre page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
