Walter Aubrey Thomas (1859-1934) was trained in Liverpool by Francis Doyle - designer of the Royal Insurance Building, with the golden dome, on the corner of Dale Street and North John Street. Thomas set up on his own account, it is said, 'early in his career'. He was to become one of the most successful architects in the city, particularly noted for his commercial buildings. When he was designing for Mr Robertson early in 1889 he was barely 30 and this is, by many years, the earliest of his buildings recorded.

The year before, in Chester, a black-and-white building designed by T.M. Lockwood was built at the junction of Bridge Street and Eastgate Street. The treatment of the corner oriel and its roof, and the gables on both the major and minor facades, have so many features in common with the Gateacre building that it seems certain that the young Thomas found inspiration in this topical design. He was building in what was at that time a country village of stone and brick, but in which the black-and-white idiom was becoming established: Church Cottages having been built in 1872 and the Black Bull refurbished in applied black-and-white treatment in about 1880. His half-timber design, over a base of the local red sandstone, with its striking and successful corner treatment, was a building of quality in 1889.

From 1894 onwards the owner of these two buildings was the National Telephone Co., but in 1900 they were bought by Parrs Bank who used the downstairs shop on the corner as a bank, opening two mornings a week. Upstairs was the telephone exchange, and this magneto exchange remained in use until 1946 when the automatic exchange was built and opened in Woolton Park. In 1919 the name of the bank was changed to London, County, Westminster and Parrs Bank Ltd, and in 1924 just Westminster Bank. In 1947 the Prudential Assurance Co. bought the building, and opened a branch office there in place of the bank. Next door (at No.28a) the grocers shop was run by the Marsh Brothers until 1921, when the business was bought by William Brooks & Co. Ltd. They continued here until the 1960s when it became a ladies fashion shop: 'Harriet Stein'.

The whole building - officially numbered 28a-d Gateacre Brow - is nowadays the head office of Alan Hutchinson & Associates (trading as the Nationwide Group) who are specialist cleaning and asbestos removal contractors. Unfortunately this attractive and distinctive Grade II Listed building is constantly being hit by heavy vehicles negotiating the narrow entrance into Sandfield Road. The Gateacre Society regards it as most important that steps should be taken to avoid the risk of further damage, but the City Council has, as yet, been unable to offer a solution.