One of Farnham’s prime retail units is undergoing major renovation prior to being rented to a new tenant.

The three-storey Grade II-listed building at 41-42 The Borough was vacated by fashion retailer White Stuff earlier in the year and is now being advertised by Curchods estate agents for £72,000 a year.

Victorian in origin, in the late 1870s the building was rented by Francis Sturt, father of George Sturt (1823-1927), the famous Farnham writer on rural crafts and affairs, notably The Wheelwright's Shop (1923).

Francis and his wife ran a stationery shop there, later managed by George’s brother Frank, who also published books and postcards and ran a library there until his death in 1930.

The building is not the same as the one Francis rented because the front was completely rebuilt in the 1920s to a ‘20th-century Tudor’ design by architect Harold Falkner. It was given listed status in 1950.