Empress Public House

The Empress Public House is a building that was originally a warehouse and was converted into a public house in 1903 by Joseph H. Hirst, the City Architect. The building dates from the mid-19th century, with its front dated 1903, and has undergone late 19th and late 20th-century alterations. It is constructed of brick with a pargeted panelled front and features a slate roof with two stacks on the side walls.

The structure has four storeys and a façade with five windows. The facing gable includes a moulded pediment with a pargeted tympanum. A prominent feature is the central two-storey bow-fronted oriel window, which has a five-light cross casement on each floor, with the upper one being smaller. Between the floors, there are elaborate pargeted bands. Above this, there is a rendered panel that holds a five-light mullioned window with a larger round-arched central light.

On the ground floor, there is a late 20th-century entrance to the left, featuring a round-arched glazed double door with an overlight, and to the right, a round-arched wooden cross casement window with glazing bars. The right side of the building has a large segment-headed window flanked by smaller windows on the left, and three additional windows on the right, all with glazing bars. Each floor above has five glazing bar windows. The ground floor is adorned with a full-width late 19th-century moulded fascia cornice, which includes two recesses containing canted blank bay windows.