Burton Building

Category: Historic Building/Architectural Interest

Buchanan Street

This large Art Deco building was built for the Burton chain of stores in 1938 by the architects Pierce & Martin. It is faced with "Empire" artificial stone work, which would have been cast at a factory and fixed to the framework of the building later. You can also see blue panels of cast iron which show detailed decorative motifs. In the middle of the 20th century chain stores like Burtons or the Co-Operative Society built shops in towns all over Britain. While they wanted the shops to be attractive to customers, they did not want to spend huge amounts of money. Therefore, using artificial stone and cast iron was chosen as it was cheaper than traditional materials like sandstone or granite.