Survey Data
Reg No
50010336
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1870 - 1925
Coordinates
315687, 234314
Date Recorded
13/11/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced three-bay four-storey commercial building, built c.1875, remodelled c.1920, with shopfront to ground floor. Flat roof hidden behind parapet wall with moulded coping and squat piers to either end. Brick chimneystacks with clay pots to east party wall. Painted brick walls laid in Flemish bond with channelled rusticated brick pilasters framing front façade, and moulded cornice to base of parapet. Yellow brick walls laid in English garden wall bond to rear and east side elevations with granite coping to parapet. Arcaded fenestration to upper floors with gauged brick round-headed bays to top floor and keystones rising from giant brick pilasters. Original round-headed tripartite timber casement windows to third floor with glazed central hub and spoked outer glazing, resting on continuous masonry sill and brick aprons below. Square-headed window openings to first and second floors with original tripartite timber casement windows and overlights, also on continuous masonry sill and brick aprons to second floor. Decorative symmetrical shopfront to ground floor with central door opening having encaustic tiled floor to porch with timber glazed porch screen. Replacement timber display window to east bay with recessed tiled entrance to west bay. Each bay flanked by brick pilasters having plinth and capital mouldings supporting replacement timber fascia and original cornice framed by pair of elaborate brackets with ball-head finials. Gauged brick flat-arch window openings with masonry sills to rear elevation having timber casement windows and steel fire escape.
Appraisal
This arcaded building was built as an auction room in 1875 and remodelled in the 1920s. Standing taller than the other buildings on the terrace, the decorative front elevation and intact shopfront give the structure a pronounced presence on the river front overlooking the Ha’penny Bridge. A well-known bookshop, recently adapted to incorporate a restaurant ‘The Winding Stair’ is a local landmark and greatly enhances the character of the area.