47, Spring Gardens

No. 47 Spring Gardens is an insurance company office building, now serving as commercial premises, constructed in 1881 by Charles Heathcote and Sons for the Commercial Union Assurance Company. The building is made of sandstone ashlar with a slate roof and features a triangular plan on an acutely-angled end-of-block site, characterized by a curved south end. Designed in the Baroque style, it stands three storeys high with attics and includes a roof turret.

The main range has three bays, with a segmentally-bowed bay to the right and a tapering curved wing to the south that resembles the prow of a ship, creating the impression that the building is sailing down the street. It has a grey granite plinth and a pilastered ground floor with an entablature and cornice. The first floor features slender Corinthian semi-columns with an entablature and cornice, while the second floor has slender panelled pilasters, a plain frieze, a bracketed cornice, and a panelled parapet, all of which are carried around the building.

The main range includes a square-headed doorway in the third bay with a granite surround, a carved cartouche on the bow to the right, and mullion-and-transom windows with moulded surrounds. The upper floors of the bowed bay to the right have single-light windows with transoms, and the acutely-curved south corner of the wing has three single-light windows on each floor. The attic features elaborately decorated pedimented gables, and above the curved fourth bay is a Baroque turret topped with a slender tiered and domed cupola. The building makes elegant architectural use of its awkward site, serving as a focal point at the junction of several streets. The interior has not been inspected.