A topshop or top-shop is a design of building specific to

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

Bedworth Bedworth ( or locally ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth, Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It is situated between Coventry, 6 miles (9.5 km) to the south, and Nuneaton, to th ...

and

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

in the English Midlands, of the 18th and 19th and early 20th centuries. A topshop has three

storey A storey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or story (American English), is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the wor ...

s. It is unusual in that the lower two floors are living accommodation, and that the top floor is a workshop containing a weaver's

loom A loom is a device used to weaving, weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the Warp (weaving), warp threads under tension (mechanics), tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of ...

. The windows on the top floor are larger than those on the lower two, to let in more light. The idea of the topshop may have originated locally.

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

refugees from France had settled in Coventry and Bedworth. Some were silk weavers. They adopted the

Jacquard loom The Jacquard machine () is a device fitted to a loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask and matelassé. The resulting ensemble of the loom and Jacquard machine is then called a Jac ...

, invented in France in 1804. Coventry and Bedworth became known for their

ribbon A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mate ...

weavers. That trade required close attention to detail; and therefore, in times before artificial lighting, the best possible use of daylight. The lower floors in a topshop had to be reinforced to support the weight of the loom. The idea was also taken up by local

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

s. The best surviving example of topshops may be at

Cash's Cash's, or J. & J. Cash Ltd., is a company in Coventry, England, founded in 1846, that manufactures woven Name_tag#Name_labels, name tapes and other woven products and is known for formerly making Ribbon#Cloth ribbon, ribbons. Foundation Th ...

former factory in Coventry - "Cash's Topshops". At that site, a

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead Beam (structure), beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used b ...

supplied power by lineshaft to a community of topshop weavers. Other examples in Coventry may be found on Far Gosford Street. Some surviving topshops are

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Gallery

File:Former Topshops, Bedworth - geograph.org.uk - 583132.jpg, A topshop in Bedworth File:Cash's Lane in Coventry 9m08.JPG, Cash's Topshops, Coventry File:Coventry Canal - Near Cash's Lane - crop.jpg, Cash's Topshops, Coventry

References

External links

* {{cite news , url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-29382231 , title=Coventry's 'creative' Far Gosford Street officially opens , work=BBC News , date=27 September 2014 , accessdate=7 October 2017 18th-century architecture in the United Kingdom 19th-century architecture in the United Kingdom History of Coventry History of Warwickshire