Former Warehouses On Corner Of Princes Dock Street And Posterngate

Warehouses, now a hotel and club, were built in two phases. The front block of the building dates to 1831, with later 20th-century alterations. A rear block was constructed around 1840. The buildings are built of brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. The front block has a rendered plinth and stands four stories plus a basement, with a five-window frontage. It features segment-headed windows; those in the basement and on the fourth floor are smaller, all with late 20th-century glazing, and many with bars. A gable fronting Prince's Dock Street has a central, segment-headed recess extending from the basement to the third floor, originally with loft doors, now with late 20th-century glazing and wooden transoms. A wrought-iron crane is situated on cast-iron brackets on the third floor. A basement window is on the left side, and a late 20th-century door is on the right. The upper floors have a single window on each side, and the fourth floor has three windows. A datestone reading "J P 1831" is inscribed in foliated script in the gable. The left return, facing Posterngate, has six bays, with a loft door to each floor in the second bay and a low doorway to the basement. To the left, there is a single window on each floor, the basement being blank. To the right, there are four windows to the upper floors, and a segment-headed doorway with a single window to the left and two to the right at basement level. The rear block has a pedimented gable fronting Posterngate, with a plinth, rendered basement, and rusticated quoins. It has four stories plus attics and a five-window range. It has loft doors to each of the upper floors, with flat heads to the first and fourth floors and segment heads to the remainder. A wrought-iron crane is positioned on the fourth floor. The basement has a low, segment-headed doorway. There are two windows on each side of the upper floors. A semicircular window is present in the pediment. The rear return angle has regular 20th-century windows and a corner entrance. The rear gable, fronting Dagger Lane, has a plinth, a pediment with brick dentillation, and a truncated pyramid finial, which may represent a sugar loaf. It stands five stories plus attics and has a five-window range. The central bay has a segment-arched, glazed loft door with a transom on the upper floors, with two segment-headed sash windows on either side of the upper floors. A wrought-iron crane is situated to the left of the fourth floor opening. The pediment contains a small round window. The rendered ground floor has a central, segment-headed blocked door to the cellars, and a segment-headed doorway to the right. The interior has been remodelled but retains round cast-iron columns supporting the floor joists. The rear block’s basement has shallow segmental brick vaulting.