Mercantile Building

The Mercantile Building is a 1883 office building designed by J. C. Parsons for Thomas Harper, located on the Quayside in Newcastle upon Tyne. Constructed from sandstone ashlar with a Welsh slate roof, the building is three storeys and has attics, arranged over seven bays. A flight of three steps leads to the central double door, which is set within an architrave. An entrance to a yard behind the building features a round arch with voussoirs and a keystone. The windows are sash windows, mostly paired, except for those in the end and centre bays. All windows have architraves. A deep cyma moulding serves as a sill band to the ground floor, while the upper floors have sill strings. Each floor has an entablature, with a pulvinated frieze above the windows, the door, and the yard arch. The frieze above the paired windows features wreath carvings. The first floor windows are topped with segmental pediments, with the exception of the top floor which features a dentilled cornice and smaller segmental pediments. The building has a high, panelled, and coped roof parapet, topped with urn finials. Two paired dormers are visible in the entablature, each with carved pediments containing cartouches.