52-78, GREY STREET

Nos. 52 to 78 on Grey Street are shops and offices built around 1836 by architect John Dobson for developer Richard Grainger. The building is constructed from sandstone ashlar and features a Welsh slate roof in a classical style. It stands four storeys high and consists of 18 bays arranged in a 1:12:1:3:1 pattern. The ground floor has been altered, while the upper floors showcase giant flat Corinthian pilasters at the one-bay end and off-centre pavilions.

Shops at Nos. 52 and 56, dating from around 1900, feature curved glass and slender pilasters. No. 78 on the left has tripartite windows framed by architraves, with Tuscan pilasters on the first floor and bracketed sills on the second. The other two pavilions have similar designs with paired first-floor windows and a single second-floor window. All windows are sashes, most with glazing bars. The intermediate bays have plain reveals, except for the right three-bay section, which includes a first-floor balustrade, recessed upper floors, and a deep first-floor cornice supported by paired brackets linking the pavilions. There is a second-floor band on the plain 12-bay section, a prominent second-floor cornice, and plain reveals for the third-floor windows under the cornice and blocking course.