A purpose-built store constructed around 1933 for the national chain Marks and Spencer. This is an example of one of their ‘super-stores’ – a term that referred to the ambitious building programme undertaken by Simon Marks, son of the founder, Michael Marks.232 The Newark branch was one of 162 stores constructed or extended between 1931 and 1939 in programme overseen by the company architect, Ernest E. Shrewsbury. The two-storey building has a Neo-Classical elevation; the upper storey faced in stone with a low central pediment and metal-framed windows above a bronze-framed shopfront with polished stone plinth, a wide recessed entrance lobby supported by a sinuously shaped metal-clad column. The shop frontage survived largely complete at the time of the store’s closure in 2019, although comparison with the 1933 photograph indicates that the central section was removed at some stage, and the glazing at first-floor level updated. The building was extended at the rear in the 1970s, when it was incorporated into the St Mark’s Place development. (1)

<1> Historic England, 2024, Newark on Trent, Historic Area Assessment by Historic England (Unpublished document). SNT6029.