No 1 Commercial Street
Historic Jersey buildings
If you own this property, have ancestors who lived here, or can provide any further information and photographs, please contact us through editorial@jerripedia.org |
Property name
1 Commercial Street
Other names
Commercial Hotel 18 Conway Street
Location
Corner of Commercial Street and Conway Street
Type of property
Former public house, now Sushi bar
Valuations
No recent transactions
Families and businesses associated with the property
Having been a public house continuously from at least 1886, into the 21st century, the occupancy of this property is better documented than others in the street, but since World War Two it has usually been listed as 18 Conway Street, with which it makes the corner. It seems likely that this building predates all of the other properties in Commercial Street and was identified as No 1, before it was decided that all the other properties on the south side should have even numbers. That may be why its listings were changed to Conway Street.
Almanac listings
- 1886-1895: W Carter, publican
- 1900: F Holden
- 1905-1930: G Wright
- 1935-1940 S Spears, Commercial Hotel. This is the first occurrence of the business name, but it is believed to have been used from the time the public house first opened.
- 1950-1965: Shown as 18 Conway Street, landlord A E Folliott
- 1970: Landlord, H Conway
- 1975-1980: Landlord, A E Le Breuilly
- 1990: Commercial Hotel, no landlord listed
Census returns
- 1891: This is the only listing under Commercial Street, showing William Carter (34) as publican, his wife Kate, 31, children George (7) and Temperance (5), and father-in-law George Laraman, 59, a master mariner. This suggests a construction date for the property in the first half of the 1880s
Historic Environment Record entry
Listed building
The building occupies a prominent location on the junction of Conway Street and Commercial Street, and continues to provide an interesting historic architectural element in an otherwise heavily developed area of St Helier. It provides tangible evidence of a period in the town's expansion from the mid-19th century onwards, when land was being recovered from the sea and a mixture of residential and commercial properties were being built on the land between Commercial Street and the Esplanade.
It is a former purpose-built public house - the Commercial Hotel. The building is situated in an area of St Helier between the historic centre of the town and the sea, laid out after completion of the Esplanade in 1832, and built up around the middle years of the 19th century. A regular weekly service by steam packet boat between England and Jersey began in 1827, and construction of the Victoria and Albert Piers greatly increased harbour activity in this area and directed new arrivals to the newly laid out streets beyond the Esplanade - the obvious place to build taverns and hotels for travellers.
Two-storey building, rendered, mid-19th century. The building displays four bays on each of the facades with a slightly recessed angled bay on the corner which provides the main entrance door. First floor windows are original twelve pane timber sashes - ground floor windows mostly new 12-pane sashes. There are decorative cement canopies on consoles of the side door fronting Conway Street (original) and the door facing Commercial Street (new doorway and likely new fittings).
The canopy on the corner bay has either lost its brackets, or never had them. Other than the above features around the entrances, and a plain string course at roof level, the building is relatively plain. The original door fronting Conway Street survives - this is in two elongated panels with a central staff moulding to imitate a pair of slim doors. The door facing Commercial Street displays the same details. Redevelopment in 2006 removed the original roof and chimneystacks, and added a glazed second floor; Conway Street elevation retained original openings; Commercial Street elevation retained original openings and window fittings on upper floor; doorway to the lounge blocked into a window, doorway created in the fourth bay window (may have begun as doorway); entrance corner elevation retains original upper floor window.
