Exchange Buildings

End-of-terrace single-bay four-storey gable-fronted premises, c. 1880; retail outlet to ground floor with restaurant to first floor. Slate pitched roof, parapet to gabled north end. Globe finials to gable with moulded cornice. Plain render finish to upper floors, painted to first. Plain plat band detail to fourth floor gable. Moulded cornice to window heads of first, second and third floors. Tripartite arrangement to openings of main elevation having one over one timber sliding sash windows. Flat roofed oriel window to first floor. Highly decorative stucco frieze about cornice to shopfront incorporating roundels and scrollwork. Partially intact timber shopfront retaining several original elements.

Highly distinctive building from the late nineteenth century incorporating many decorative details characteristic of its period, and retaining many of these original features. Significant also as the site of a popular theatre in the eighteenth century, which lent its name to the street (Playhouse Lane) for a time. Important in its own right as well as for the contribution it makes to the streetscape and this part of the city.