Emerson Chambers

Emerson Chambers is a building constructed around 1903 by the architects Simpson, Lawson and Rayne. It features shops and offices and is designed in a rich Art Nouveau/Baroque style. The structure is made of sandstone ashlar with a dark granite plinth and doorcases, topped with a Welsh slate roof that has copper domes.

The building stands five storeys tall with attics and is organized into three wide bays, including canted corner bays. The central curved section has a double door framed by Jacobean Ionic columns that have exaggerated entasis, flanked by side lights and a fanlight adorned with Art Nouveau glazing bars. The corner bays have simpler Ionic doorcases, and the shop fronts are decorated with slender pilasters, long brackets supporting the cornice, and flowing glazing bars, although the right shop front is partially obscured by a fascia added around 1970.

On the upper floors, there are shallow canted oriel windows at different heights, featuring keystones, scrolled cornices, balustrades, strapwork, and a top frieze decorated with garlands. The corners of the building have bracketed balconies and round, corbelled turrets. The left turret is topped with an ornate copper dome that has a two-tiered design and an oriental finial, while the right turret features a clock dome in a similar style.

The high central gable is shaped and scrolled, containing two round-headed windows and an oculus. The intermediate square-headed dormers each have two diagonally-placed high pyramidal roofs with swept eaves, and similar roofs are found on tiers of small lights in the high hipped roof. The building also has two high, corniced ashlar chimneys.