Reg No
50920033
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1920 - 1930
Coordinates
315915, 233743
Date Recorded
06/10/2015
Date Updated
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Attached two-bay four-storey commercial building, built c. 1925, with recent shopfront spanning ground floor. Now in use as shop. Flat roof hidden behind Portland limestone parapet wall with shallow pediment, rendered chimneystacks to north party wall with lipped clay pots. Machine-made red brick walls laid in Flemish bond with channel-rusticated Portland limestone ashlar soldier quoins framing elevation as pair of pilasters surmounted by wreath panels and capital mouldings with plain limestone frieze and crown cornice. Ruled-and-lined render to rear elevation. Square-headed window openings with Portland limestone architraves, sills and panelled aprons with timber casement windows. Lugged-and-kneed to second floor and pedimented to first floor with scrolled console brackets. Bipartite timber casements with single-pane overlights. Glazed shopfront with recent polished granite-clad surround and fascia, framed by original scrolled Portland limestone console brackets and matching full-span cornice. Fronting onto west side of Grafton Street, rear (west) elevation addresses Swan Yard.
Though built as a commercial building, to designs by Patrick Munden, the façade proportions and plot size adhere to an earlier residential character. The decorative Portland limestone dressings and surviving part of original shopfront add to its historic character. The building plays an important role in the historic streetscape.