Brick Alley Cafe

Attached two-bay four-storey former house, built c.1800, having recent shopfront to front (north) elevation. Now in use as cafe. Pitched slate roof to front and flat roof to rear (south) elevation, having rebuilt red brick parapet with cut granite coping, and smooth rendered chimneystack. Brown brick walls, laid in Flemish bond to upper floors. Square-headed window openings having masonry sills, raised render reveals, six-over-six pane and three-over-three pane timber sliding sash windows, with recent balconettes to first floor windows. Recent timber shopfront with square-headed openings and recent fittings. Situated on south side and east end of Essex Street East.

The restrained façade of the upper floors of this building shares proportions and material characteristics with its neighbours, lending a sense of continuity to the streetscape. Although it has lost some of its original fabric, it retains its traditional form and character, and the retention of timber sliding sash windows lends a patina of age to the composition. In the mid-nineteenth century, according to Thom's Directory, it was the premises of Peter Byrne, provision dealer, indicating that it has a long history of commercial use. Essex Street opened in 1674 and was divided into east and west in the 1760s, by the opening of Parliament Street. The street was largely rebuilt in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.