37-43, CHINA STREET

37-43 China Street is a terrace of three houses, now converted into four shops, dating from the early 18th century and altered in the late 19th century. The building is constructed of coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings and features a slate roof with a gable chimney stack on the left. Each house originally had a double-depth front range and a rear wing, which have since been altered. The structure has three storeys above cellars and consists of nine bays. Historical photographs indicate that the building was originally divided into properties of two, three, and four bays, with doorways located in bays two, three, and eight.

The ground floor now has four shop fronts from around 1900, each featuring a plate-glass window beneath a semicircular head, a doorway to the right, a plain fascia board, and a prominent cornice supported by carved brackets, likely added after the widening of China Street in 1895. The upper windows have moulded sills and are set into slightly projecting vertical panels, with a band running between the first and second storeys. The joinery of these windows is recent. The second-floor windows, which originally had 12-pane sashes, have plain surrounds, while the first-floor windows, originally with 18-pane sashes, feature jambs styled as Tuscan pilasters without bases and stilted lintels with a projecting triple keystone.