Survey Data
Reg No
50920070
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1900 - 1920
Coordinates
315873, 233600
Date Recorded
04/08/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay four-storey commercial building with original shopfront, built c. 1910, as a group of four similar buildings (Nos. 51-53). Hipped slate roof with ridge running perpendicular to street, concealed behind parapet wall with granite coping. Machine-made red brick walls laid in Flemish bond with full-height red brick piers flanking front elevation, moulded terracotta sill and stringcourses and moulded red brick course to base of parapet. Cast-iron wall-ties to upper floor. Gauged brick segmental-headed window openings with moulded granite sills and brick sill course, single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns. Single three-sided timber-framed oriel window to first floor level with lead-lined roof, bellied base and original timber casement windows with continuous timber transom and square overlights. Stucco shopfront to ground floor comprising glazed door to east-of-centre flanked by fixed-pane display windows with slender colonnettes and dentilled transoms. Further recessed door opening to west with replacement glazed timber doors providing access to upper floors. Entire ground floor flanked by pilasters with foliate capitals rising from elevated panelled bases enriched with foliate carvings, all supporting scrolled fascia panel and lead-lined hood cornice. Street fronted on north side of King Street South, abutted by similar red brick terraces Nos. 51-53 (50920071-73) to west and No. 55 (50920069) to east.
Appraisal
A fine purpose-built red brick Edwardian commercial building, built as one of a group of four, forming a symmetrical composition. Retaining most of its original external fabric, this early twentieth-century building typifies the architectural fashion at the turn of the century. Together with the matching three buildings, it form a coherent stretch of historic streetscape. The handsome shopfront is a particularly noteworthy feature, with historic shopfronts increasingly rare throughout the city.