Thorn House

Thorn House is a building that served as offices and a generating station for an electricity generating company, constructed between 1903 and 1904 by W.H. George, with some 20th-century alterations. It is built from red brick with ashlar sandstone dressings and features a Welsh slate roof, roof glazing, and a full-length ridge louvre for the generating station. The building has a 'V' plan layout, consisting of a linear office range at the street front and a 'T' plan generating station at the rear, connected at the north-west corner.

The street-facing elevation is designed in a free baroque style, presenting an imposing symmetrical facade with a configuration of 1:4:1:4:1 bays. It rises from a shallow plinth and consists of two storeys with attics, featuring advanced pedimented bays at each end. The central entrance bay has an open pediment and is flanked by giant pilasters that support a segmental pediment at the eaves level. Above the projecting eaves is a shallow parapet and a modillion cornice. On either side of the doorway are 6 over 6 pane sash windows set beneath wedge lintels with elongated keyblocks. The attic includes dormers with segmental roofs and undivided 2-pane casements. The advanced gables feature coupled ground floor sashes with Gibbsian surrounds and semi-circular headed windows on the first floor, flanked by Ionic columns that support open pediments.

The generating station at the rear has five bays and includes lunette windows at the heads of arches in a blind ground floor arcade supported by small pilasters. The gable is coped and features a segmentally-headed ashlar panel at the center. The interior has not been inspected.