The Albany

The Albany is a former office and warehouse building dating from 1856, designed by J.K. Colling. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings. The building is three storeys high with a basement, and has eleven bays. The basement is rusticated granite, while the ground floor is rusticated ashlar. The ground floor features segmental-headed windows with keystones, and tripartite sash windows, with a cornice above. The central ground floor entrance is headed in granite with a keystone, carved spandrels and frieze, surmounted by a segmental pediment. The first floor has segmental-headed windows within round relieving arches, which incorporate carved ornament in the archivolts and tympana. The second floor has a sill band, stone architraves and keystones to the windows. The building is topped by a carved frieze and a heavy, modillioned cornice, with a balustraded parapet. The sides of the building are more utilitarian, with area railings and hoists. The inner courtyard is particularly noteworthy. Iron entrance gates in the middle lead to a central corridor featuring a coffered and enriched barrel vault, supported by Composite capitals and red granite columns. Secondary entrances are provided to the north and south corridors. Steps lead down to the courtyard, a long and narrow space, four storeys high, with fifteen windows on each of the longer sides. Two iron bridges span the middle of the courtyard, alongside an iron spiral staircase. Good open-well iron staircases are located in the wings of the building.