62-63 Market Place

Two early to mid-19th century shops with offices above, situated at 62-63 Market Place.

The building is constructed in brick with stucco to the front elevation, stone dressings, and timber and glass shopfronts. The plan is aligned east-west and polygonal in shape.

The front elevation faces east and forms a four-storey, four-bay block with two shops on the ground floor. It conceals a pitched roof, with a gable front to number 63, two red-brick chimneystacks and flush rooflights.

The shopfronts are very finely detailed and of high quality. The ground floor of number 63 Market Place has a shopfront flanked by two entrances. It features a recessed central entrance with a soffit above panelled with mirrors and a partially surviving mosaic tiled floor below. The door is a modern replacement but retains an etched-glass overlight featuring a gilded number '63'. The shop windows to either side are single sheets of curved plate glass set in a timber frame ornamented in classical style. The stall risers are also curved and beaded horizontally. The shopfront is flanked by panelled pilasters topped by double-decker acanthus leaf consoles that support the frieze above the shop windows. This frieze has a central acanthus-leaf console separating a pair of swan-neck pediments, with the frieze flanked by bosses linking the double-decker consoles with the dentilated cornice above. Above this cornice is a further panelled frieze carrying the shop sign, angled downwards and possibly the front board for a retractable canopy. The entrances flanking the shopfront are of similar design; the entrance to the right is a third wider than that to the left. Both have panelled doors and stone surrounds with a cartouche set above a rectangular frame with a scrolled pediment. The cartouche above the right entrance is inscribed with the number '63'.

The ground floor of number 62 Market Place forms another shopfront without flanking side entrances, of different design but also with a recessed central entrance and mosaic tiled floor. It is flanked by plate-glass windows in ornamented timber frames with splayed tops to the jambs and panelled stall risers below. The entrance door is three-quarter glazed with a single sheet of glass, the frame shouldered at the top and rounded at the bottom and topped with a finial. In the solid lower quarter of the door is a cartouche featuring a green man design with a fielded panel below and an ornamented letter box. The lintel above the door is dentilated with a scrolled pediment above and plain glass top light. The shopfront is flanked by pilasters, the lower part fluted and the upper panelled. At the top of each pilaster is a lion head console with a monkey at the back reaching around the side. Each lion head console is supported on a short pedestal sitting on a cushion, which in turn is supported by an acanthus leaf corbel with a fruit swag below. The shop name board spanning between the lion heads is angled downwards and relatively plain.

Above the shopfronts, the upper three storeys are stuccoed in restrained classical style with storey bands and banded rustication to the first floor, and similar rustication to the second and third floors which now appears partly infilled. The two bays above number 63 Market Place are flanked by Roman Ionic pilasters rising through the elevation to a simple gabled pediment. The first-floor windows have no surrounds; the second-floor windows have moulded surrounds with pediments above supported on consoles; and the third-floor windows have moulded surrounds with no pediments. The two bays above number 62 Market Place lack the pilasters and pediments, and lack surrounds to the first and second-floor windows. The second-floor windows have cornices supported on consoles and the third floor has moulded surrounds. All windows, apart from two replacement top-opening casement windows on the top floor, retain one-over-one timber sash windows.

The rear elevation is rendered with a range of mid to late-19th century sashes. At least one horizontal sliding-sash window survives.