Forbes' Buildings

MIDDLESBROUGH LINTHORPE ROAD, NZ 41 NE (4919) west side. 3/50 Forbes' Buildings - II Bakery with shops and offices, 1899/1900 by R. Lofthouse & Sons (Middlesbrough), for John Forbes. Now used as shopping arcade. Brick in English garden wall bond, with terracotta dressings. Late C20 concrete- tiled roofs, and glazed roof over arcades. Asymmetrical front. Mixed Classical and Gothic styles. 2-and 3-storey, 8-bay entrance front. 4th bay has round-headed vehicle entrance, with fanlight, imposts and archivolt with enriched key blocks and roundels in spandrels, under deep frieze with applied lettering: "FORBES' BUILDINGS", and cornice. Other bays have renewed late C20 shop fronts, framed by original pilasters and cornice. 3 sash windows, on upper floors of each bay, with quoin surrounds or grouped with pilasters. Venetian windows on 2nd floors of first and 6th bays and on first floor of 2nd, 5th and 7th bays. Bracketed sills and plain lintel bands. Shaped gable over each bay, with paired trefoil-headed attic windows under floating cornices in 3rd, 4th and 8th bays. Blind round-headed niches between bays. Round turret, with blind round arcading and bracketed trumpet-shaped copper roof, rises from curved left corner. Similar 2-bay right return. 10-bay left return shows similar but restrained treatment. Rebuilt late C20 service area on north-west part of site is not of special interest.

Listing NGR: NZ4920719403