Former 19th century tea room, butchers shop and estate agents offices at 12 The Broadway, Wickford (EHER 80093)

Demolished in 2019. A late 19th to early-20th century single-storey building with a gabled slate roof and painted rendered walls. It may have originally been a tea room, and was occupied by a butcher in the 1960s. The building most recently served as the offices of Temme English Estate Agent and Wickford Taxis.

March 2019. Level 1 building recording. 12 The Broadway is a diminutive, single-storey building with painted rendered walls (which replace original weatherboarding) and a slate roof which is gabled to the East and West. Although much-modified, it is of late 19th/early 20th century date; its general form and appearance concurs with the structure shown on historic maps from 1922 onwards, and visible in early 20th century photographs. The building has a pair of canted bay windows facing towards The Broadway, which form its shopfront, beneath an overhanging fascia which is continuous with that to No. 10 to its West. Each of the bay windows has a doorway, serving two separate commercial premises. To the rear is a collection of rudimentary lean-to structures. The Ordnance Survey map of 1955-8 shows the changes which occurred during the second quarter of the 20th century. It suggests some modifications to the rear of the building at and an enclosed yard is shown on its eastern side. The interior has plain wall and ceiling finishes. The largest of the lean-to structures to the rear houses a cold store, possibly originally constructed for the butcher’s shop known to have occupied the building in the late 1960s. Whilst its early use is uncertain, it may have formed part of a tea room 'complex' along with No. 8, prior to the construction of No. 10: a photograph taken in the early 20th century, post 1910, shows the word 'teas' written on the original weatherboarding. No. 10, along with the western half of No. 12, was most recently the premises of TemmeEnglish, estate agent. The eastern half of No. 12 was an office for Wickford Taxis. <1> August 2019. Demolition. The building was demolished in August 2019 in advance of the construction of a new Aldi supermarket on the adjacent land. <2>