New Exchange Buildings

New Exchange Buildings is an office building constructed in 1874 by W.H. Blessley, which is now used for both residential and office purposes. It is built from brick in Flemish bond, featuring sandstone dressings and a Welsh slate roof with rebuilt transverse ridge stacks.

The building occupies a corner position with a U-shaped plan around a small courtyard at the rear. The west elevation faces Queen’s Square, where the main entrances are located, while the south elevation faces Bridge Street East.

The structure has four storeys, with eight bays on the Queen’s Square side and seven bays on the Bridge Street East side, both of which include a quadrant bay.

On the Queen’s Square elevation, the ground floor features a deep plinth and arched-arcaded window openings above. The original entrance in the fifth bay has a renewed panelled door and fanlight, flanked by modern panelled doors with fanlights set within former window openings. The upper floors are separated by pilaster strips between the second and third bays, and the seventh and eighth bays. The first floor has a segment-arcade with a continuous hoodmould, sill band, and blind tympana. The second floor features round-arcaded windows with pointed hoodmoulds, while the third floor has square-headed windows under shaped lintels and a continuous hoodmould, both floors having moulded sill bands. Timber sashes are present throughout. The shallow-pitched roof is hipped and gabled, with a corbelled eaves cornice and a short-curved parapet over the quadrant bay.

The Bridge Street East elevation consists of seven bays, including a quadrant bay at the right end, and is styled similarly to the Queen’s Square elevation.