56, Dale Street

No. 56 Dale Street is a shipping warehouse, now used as premises for garment wholesalers, dating from around 1870 with some alterations. The building features a plinth and ground floor made of sandstone ashlar with some polished pink granite, while the upper floors are constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, accented with blue brick ornamentation. The roof is concealed.

The rectangular plan runs parallel to the street and includes loading bays on the right-hand side wall facing Mangle Street. The design is in a simplified Venetian style, comprising a basement and four storeys with seven symmetrical bays. Notable architectural features include a cornice at the ground floor, pilasters on the first and second floors, an arcaded frieze, and a prominent cornice.

The central round-headed doorway is flanked by set-in granite colonettes and has a crest on the lintel inscribed with "FAC ET SPERA," along with a banded two-centred arched extrados. The windows are coupled on all floors except the top: they are shouldered at the basement level, segmental-headed at the ground floor with granite colonettes and banded heads under linked hoodmoulds, square-headed at the second floor with sandstone lintels and diaper bands above, and banded segmental-headed at the third floor with linking carved impost bands and hoodmoulds. The fourth floor features small triple windows with a continuous sill-band. All windows, except those in the basement, are sashed without glazing bars.

The right-hand return wall has twelve windows, mostly narrow four-pane sashes, with those up to the second floor set in chamfered slots. There are also double loading bays towards the rear, both equipped with internal wall-cranes, one of which has a Jacobs ladder. Inside, there is a wide quarter-turn staircase with cast-iron balusters.