We paint shopfronts and commercial frontages in Weston Favell, NN3, about 2.9 miles north-east of Northampton town centre. The old village has very few trading premises left, so this mostly covers the barber's at 20 High Street, the Bold Dragoon and Trumpet pubs, and units at Weston Favell Shopping Centre.
A village High Street with one shop window
Weston Favell’s High Street once had its own general store and post office. The post office went in 2008 and the shop became a hairdresser. In the 2010 appraisal, number 20, which was that store and post office, appears as a barber’s fitted with a modern shop window. Beyond it, trade inside the conservation boundary comes down to a pair of pubs, a couple of halls and the tennis club. So shopfront painting in the old village is a small, specific job rather than a parade of units.
20 High Street is one of the village’s few historic red-brick buildings, and the brick face should stay unpainted. What can be painted is the timber or metal around the shop window, the door and frame, any fascia board, and the window sills. In the Weston Favell conservation area a sober, well-kept frontage looks right, and a heritage colour on the joinery will sit more comfortably against the brick than a bright corporate shade.
Two 1930s pub frontages
Each of the village’s pubs replaced an older inn in the 1930s. The Trumpet Inn was one of the buildings that grew up along the Northampton to Wellingborough turnpike of 1796-7, now the A4500, and the pub stands on that busy road. The Bold Dragoon is flanked by open parking on two sides, which is unusual in a village where street parking is otherwise tight.
A pub frontage usually means painted render or brickwork where it was painted originally, window frames, doors, fascia and sign boards, gutters and sometimes outdoor seating and fencing. The car parks at the Bold Dragoon give room for a tower, but they are also where customers arrive. We agree with the landlord which areas to close off and when, and we fence off wet work. On the A4500 side of the Trumpet, traffic means extra care with ladders and kit near the kerb.
We cannot work through the night, so the job is planned around your opening times. Quieter mornings usually suit the messiest preparation, with the entrance done first or last so customers can always get in.
Signs, colours and consent
Repainting an existing frontage like for like is ordinary maintenance. Changing the look of a building in a conservation area is a different matter. New illuminated or larger signs may need advertisement consent, and none of the commercial buildings in the core should lose original features without a conversation with the council first. If a sign board needs re-lettering, we prepare and paint the board, and a signwriter can do the lettering afterwards.
Units at Weston Favell Shopping Centre
Most of the retail carrying the Weston Favell name is in the shopping centre that opened in 1974, where a Tesco Extra anchors 68 units on two floors and a small retail park sits at the back. Work inside a managed centre runs to the centre’s own rules on working hours, contractor paperwork and colours, so we start by getting the requirements from your landlord or the centre management. Unit fronts in a busy mall take a lot of knocks, so we use hard-wearing finishes on frames and stallrisers.
How we plan disruption, prep and materials on a trading frontage is covered on our main shopfront painting page. For bars, interiors and wider premises, see commercial painting.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
