Sevendale House

Sevendale House is a large general warehouse, built in 1903 for I.J.& C. Cooper Ltd, general warehousemen. It occupies a long rectangular plot bounded by Dale Street, Spear Street, Lever Street, and Stevenson Square, and incorporates offices at each end with warehousing in between. The building is constructed with a steel frame and concrete floors, clad in polished red granite, red sandstone (now grime-blackened), blood-red brick, and terracotta, with a green slate roof. It is designed in a Jacobean style.

The Dale Street facade, of four storeys with a basement and attic, presents a symmetrical composition of five wide bays with splayed corners. Pilasters at ground floor extend upwards as semi-octagonal shafts, terminating in domed finials, and a frieze displays the lettering “I.J.& C. COOPER LTD”. A parapet features shaped gables centrally and at each corner, also lettered. The ground floor originally housed a large round-headed central doorway with an elaborate surround, including a keystone cartouche displaying the date "1903". The doorway opening is now filled by a mirrored screen with a small door in the centre. "Sevendale House" is displayed in late 20th-century lettering attached to the frieze above. Coupled plate-glass windows occupy the inner bays on the ground floor, while large single plate-glass windows are in the outer bays. The first and second floors include coupled windows in the centre, two-storey five-light oriels in the inner bays, large single-light windows in the outer bays (except for the oriels which are on the second floor), and two-storey segmental oriels at the corners, all with keyed elliptical-arched heads. A moulded cornice runs around the facade. The third floor features an almost continuous series of small single-light windows. Art Nouveau leaded glazing, or small panes, are incorporated into the upper lights of many windows. The roof has flat-roofed dormers.

The south side (facing Lever Street) has eleven bays in a similar style, with two-storey canted oriels in alternate bays, pairs of square-headed windows at the third floor, and pairs of dormers above. Late 20th-century entrances have been inserted in the centre and at each end. The rear facade (facing Stevenson Square) is similar to the front but lacks the original main doorway. The north side (facing Spear Street) is largely curtain walling of steel-framed glazing, including a three-bay loading entrance with cast-iron piers and a wrought-iron beam, with a gabled dormer above.