Spanish City

Spanish City is a building originally designed as a theatre and eight shops, constructed between 1908 and 1910 by Cackett and Burns Dick for Whitley Pleasure Gardens Ltd, with engineering by LG Mouchel using Hennebique patent 'ferro-concrete' (reinforced concrete). It features a Free Baroque style and has been converted into a mix of restaurants, a café, a micro pub, and three shops.

The main block is two storeys high and consists of three bays, flanked by three-storey towers and single-storey four-bay wings. The central block has seven wide steps leading up to three double doors set beneath a bracketed keyed arch with deep panelled coffering. On either side are single shops with bracketed fascias defined by pilasters adorned with garland and wreath ornamentation. Above, there are nine windows divided into three groups by single pilasters and an entablature, featuring renewed windows. The tower doors are topped with bracketed canopies under lunettes, while the upper stages contain sash windows in architraves and slit windows. A cornice runs along the top.

The one-storey wings have pilasters that define four shop windows on either side, complete with wreaths on the fascias. The central dome features a colonnaded lantern and an iron finial, with the drum having twelve round windows in projecting panels. The roofs on either side are flat, and the simplified towers are crowned by hand-raised copper statues of cymbal players. At the time of the survey, the door head in the right tower and the pilasters in the right wing were obscured by signs. The building was restored in 2018.

Inside, there is a circular entrance hall that was originally two storeys high but has been reinstated following the insertion of a floor at the first-floor level. Above this hall is a coffered concrete dome that measures 50 feet in diameter and features twelve oval windows with festoon swags. The ground floor has been converted into a restaurant and includes twelve columns. The former theatre space, which was converted into a bingo hall, is currently vacant.