Sally West & Mr James for Men

Attached five-bay three-storey former house, built c.1835, with wider centre bay and two recent shopfronts to ground floor. Now in use as retail outlets and apartments. Extensive two-storey residential extension to rear. Recent slate roof of altered pitch with uPVC rainwater goods. Smooth ruled-and-lined rendered walles with banded raised quoins and recent raised band at cornice level. First floor windows in aedicule surrounds of rendered pilasters with bracketed hoods, moulded architraves to second floor windows. One-over-one timber sliding sash windows, all with limestone sills. Recent timber shopfronts with central doorway to upstairs accommodation.

A stately, well-proportioned and balanced facade characterised by diminishing height of the openings and wider central bay, embellished by classical inspired stucco decoration. Despite the loss of its historic shopfront and gable chimneystacks, this building constitutes an impressive addition to the historic streetscape by virtue of its height and frontage width. It demonstrates the former dual use of urban houses by well-to-do merchants, with retail outlet and ground floor level and residential accommodation above, which was the norm in provincial towns until the twentieth century.