Gem House and Messrs Reid and Company

Gem House and Messrs Reid and Company is a shop and office building constructed in 1904 by Newcombe and Newcombe for Robert Herron, with a shop for Reid and Sons added around 1906. It is built of sandstone ashlar and features a slate roof. The design is in a free style with art-nouveau shop details. The building has four storeys and attics, with two wide bays. The shop includes curved windows leading to a recessed entrance, scrolled brass name plaques beneath the windows, and flowing glazing bars to the window heads and mirror soffit. There is extensive carved ornamentation on the two recessed doors. A bracketed fascia is positioned below two wide shallow bows, which have pilasters of different architectural orders on each floor—Roman Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian—framing three sash windows in each bow. The top cornice is serpentine and dentilled, and the roof features a balustrade with tall spike finials. There are two wide attic windows with three sashes in pilasters, topped with scrolled pediments, and the building has a mansard roof.