DH Painter & Decorator takes on commercial painting and decorating in Towcester, NN12, eight-odd miles south-west of Northampton. Most of the town's business premises are shops, pubs, hotels and offices in historic Watling Street and market square buildings, so the work is planned around trading, a busy pavement and the conservation area.
Where Towcester’s businesses trade from
Commercial Towcester is concentrated in a small area. Shops occupy the ground floors along Watling Street, with homes above, and more premises face the market square beside the 1865 Town Hall and Corn Exchange. So most commercial painting in the centre happens inside older buildings rather than modern units. Many of those buildings are listed, and almost all of the centre is in the Towcester Conservation Area.
That affects the job before any paint is chosen. Listed premises may need consent for changes in character, so a new colour scheme or paint type in a listed shop, pub or office may need agreeing with West Northamptonshire Council first. Outside, the 2012 appraisal says most commercial units have kept their traditional shopfronts and lists badly designed fronts and signs among the threats to the area. The front of the building is covered on our shopfront painting page. This page deals with the rest of the premises.
Former coaching inns, pubs and hotels
Watling Street once had more than 20 inns serving travellers, and some still trade as pubs and hotels. The Saracen’s Head, a Grade II early 18th-century inn of coursed squared ironstone that Dickens wrote into Pickwick Papers, still trades as a hotel behind its carriage arch and panelled double doors. Hospitality buildings of this age bring:
- Bar and dining-room walls in old plaster that need breathable paint, often around exposed beams and period joinery.
- High-wear corridors, stairs and bedroom doors that need wipeable finishes and a sensible order of work so rooms can be released back quickly.
- Carriage arches and large panelled doors that count as major pieces of exterior joinery.
- Walls built over hidden timber frames, where cracks come back unless they are filled with something flexible.
Working beside the A5
Most Watling Street premises have no forecourt at all, and the A5 runs through the middle of town. The council has declared the centre an Air Quality Management Area, and for a business that means signboards, entrance doors and window frames greying faster than they would on a side street. Any outside work means placing ladders or towers on a busy footway, so we plan barriers and sheeting to keep shoppers, staff and parked cars clear. The appraisal also notes that traffic and parked cars dominate much of narrow Park Street, which affects where a van can stop.
Inside, we agree a sequence with you before starting: which rooms or areas are done first, what has to stay open, and where stock or furniture can go. Fitting work around trading is part of the quote from the start.
Upper floors and back-of-house rooms
The conservation area’s core is shops on the ground floor with homes above, and behind many frontages a long burgage plot runs back towards alleys such as Whittons Lane and Meeting Lane. Commercial work here can therefore take in stores and staff rooms at the rear of the plot as well as the trading floor. Those rooms sit in the same old fabric as the shop, so the same breathable paints and flexible fillers apply, but the finish can be tougher: a scrubbable matt on walls and satin on doors suits rooms used for deliveries and stock. Decorating front and back in one booking also means one set of access arrangements on the A5 pavement rather than two.
For how we schedule commercial jobs and what we take on, see our main commercial painting page, and the Towcester area guide covers homes as well as businesses.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
