The Baines House on St. John's (St. Luke's) Square

In Bennett's Old Wives' Tales - Constance and Sophia Baines, the daughters of a shopkeeper, grow up in the town of Bursley (Burslem). Sophia eventually runs off and settles in Paris with her husband, who is a cad, and Constance remains behind in England and marries a mild-mannered shop assistant.

The sisters are reunited years later when they are old, and Bennett skillfully contrasts what has remained stable in their characters with the differences time and environment have produced in their personalities.

Looking from William Clowes Street - the Baines house on the left
and Povey's Confectioners shop on the right
photo: Dec 2008

"The building had also a considerable frontage on King Street, where, behind the shop, was sheltered the parlour, with a large window and a door that led directly by two steps into the street."

Bennett: The Old Wives Tales

same view c.1960
photo: the Warrillow Collection

"The side door to Baines' shop in King Street, now William Clowes Street, showing the steps on which Gerald Scales would wait for Sophia Baines and "Sophia came to regard his being on the door step as the most natural thing in the world." The fine old iron boot scraper is still to be seen as is the window of the cellar in which poor Maggie worked."

Warrillow: Arnold Bennett and Stoke-on-Trent

"... and among the five the shop of Baines stood supreme. No business establishment could possibly be more respected than that of Mr. Baines was respected. And though
John Baines had been bedridden for a dozen years, he still lived on the lips of admiring, ceremonious burgesses as 'our honoured fellow-townsman.' He deserved his reputation.

The Baines's shop, to make which three dwellings had at intervals been thrown into one, lay at the bottom of the Square. It formed about one-third of the south side of the Square......"

" It was a composite building of three storeys, in blackish-crimson brick, with a projecting shop-front and, above and behind that, two rows of little windows. On the sash of each window was a red cloth roll stuffed with sawdust, to prevent draughts; plain white blinds descended about six inches from the top of each window.

There were no curtains to any of the windows save one; this was the window of the drawing-room, on the first floor at the corner of the Square and King Street. Another window, on the second storey, was peculiar, in that it had neither blind nor pad, and was very dirty; this was the window of an unused room that had a separate staircase to itself, the staircase being barred by a door always locked. Constance and Sophia had lived in continual expectation of the abnormal issuing from that mysterious room, which was next to their own. But they were disappointed. The room had no shameful
secret except the incompetence of the architect who had made one house out of three; it was just an empty, unemployable room.

The building had also a considerable frontage on King Street, where, behind the shop, was sheltered the parlour, with a large window and a door that led directly by two steps into the street."

Bennett: The Old Wives Tales