23-31, BRIDGE STREET

23-31 Bridge Street is a terrace of eight shops and dwellings built in the mid-19th century. The building is faced with ashlar stone and has a Welsh slate roof. It stands three storeys high, featuring a six-window range on Hamilton Street and a ten-window range on Bridge Street, with rounded corners at each end of the Bridge Street elevation. The design includes full-height pilasters over the ground floor and pediments above the first-floor windows, which are emphasized by the rounded angles and flanking bays.

The late 19th-century shop fronts on the Bridge Street elevation are symmetrically arranged, with paired segmentally-arched doors in the central section and plain outer doors with three-light windows, most of which are now boarded up. Pilasters define the shop fronts, and there is a plain fascia with a moulded head above. The Hamilton Street elevation features similar shop fronts with wide outer doors.

Above the shop fronts, there are 12-pane sash windows (with 9 panes in the attic storey) set in moulded architraves with entablatures, and continuous sill bands. A moulded cornice and parapet run along the top of the building. The corner and two adjacent bays on the Hamilton Street elevation are highlighted with full-height pilasters.

On the short return elevation to Albion Street, there are two bays with pedimented windows on the first floor, also articulated by full-height pilasters. This elevation includes a moulded segmentally-arched door and a three-light shop window. Beyond this, there is a lower two-storey block with two blocked windows on the ground floor and two 12-pane sash windows above, topped with plain parapet eaves.

No. 9 Hamilton Street is a separate building, standing three storeys tall with a four-window range. It has an inserted shop front with a continuous moulding over the fascia, which may be from an earlier design. The first floor features 12-pane sash windows in moulded architraves with entablatures above. Gable and axial stacks are present throughout the building.