SUMMERSAULT, OUR PLACE

Summersault of Rugby is housed within one of the finest and most decorative examples of terracotta architecture in the county, produced during a period of huge expansion by Boots the Chemists. Jesse Boot and his wife Florence created hundreds of buildings many to this and similar patterns, by the architect Albert Bromley of Nottingham; only a handful have survived the influx of modern clean lined architecture from the 1920s onwards, making this a building of national importance.

The building was completed in two phases between 1902 and 1912, but was divided brutally into two by a dividing brick wall in the 1930s, when Boots built and moved into their Art Deco building next door.

In 2004 Summersault reunited the two halves and restored the central windows and terracotta lost and damaged during its division. The timber shop front was carefully replicated from photographs of 1912, and is painted with historically accurate oil paints and hand written signage.

It might be found interesting to know that the area where our toilet and lavatory facilities are was during Boots occupation of the building The Boots Penny Library – one of the first lending libraries in the World.

We are proud to have played a part in our national heritage and to have had the opportunity to engage in a project that fulfills the Summersault desire to be involved in real objects created by real people.