St Nicholas' Buildings

Shops and offices dating to circa 1850, designed by Parnell. The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar with a Welsh slate roof, and has rendered chimneys. It is built in a Venetian Renaissance style. The structure is four storeys high, with a fifth storey over the left-hand entrance section and attics over the right-hand section. It comprises 27 bays arranged as 5:5:11:5:1, with a five-bay principal entrance section flanking an eleven-bay section. The entrance sections feature recessed double doors in the outer bays, with lunettes above, flanking a three-bay lunette that itself has roundels in carved spandrels, all of the lunettes being keyed. The eleven-bay section has a central double door and overlight recessed between Tuscan pilasters. Channelled rustication defines piers and some shops. Raised numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 are located on the fascias above the doors, with the number 5 incised on the piers flanking the shop to the right. A ground-floor entablature is present. The first floor has mullioned-and-transomed two-light windows in a Tuscan order. A Giant Order is present above, featuring cross windows in hollow-chamfered reveals on the second floor and two round-headed lights in arches on Gothic pilasters on the third floor. A modillioned eaves cornice runs along the top. Attic sashes are set within three pedimented aedicules to the left and in intermediate bays, while similar aedicules are present as dormers to the right, with intermediate plain dormers in a mansard roof. The listing also refers to the property at Nos. 2-10 (even) Westgate Road.