Prudential Building

GRIMSBY

TA2609SE VICTORIA STREET WEST 699-1/21/79 (North side) No.49 Prudential Building

GV II

Shop and offices. 1913. By Paul Waterhouse for Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd. Limestone ashlar with green slate roof. Edwardian Baroque style. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attic. 1:3:1 bays, with central bays breaking forward. Plinth, channelled rustication to ground floor, 4 giant Ionic pilasters to central section. Ground floor has central C20 shop front in original wide segmental-arched opening with scrolled keystone and pair of squared brackets carrying a narrow central first-floor balcony. Recessed side bays each have doorways with architraves, bracketed dosserets and a dentilled open pediment supporting a deeply-recessed circular window with glazing bars in an architrave with an elaborate carved keystone with festoons, ribbons and fruit. Entrance on right has original panelled door; former entrance on left has inserted C20 glazing. First-floor string course. Pilastered central section has deeply recessed windows. Central bay has a projecting panel with scrolled feet, containing a balconied first-floor window beneath an elaborate carved cartouche and dentilled segmental hood, the panel continuing above to form the base of a second-floor balcony. Both balconies have geometric wrought-iron balustrades. Flanking bays 2 and 4 have blind balustraded aprons to the second-floor windows. Outer bays have full-height panels containing windows with bead-and-reel moulded reveals, moulded sills and raised panels between floors. All windows (apart from dormers) have C20 2-light casements. Central entablature with raised gold lettering in frieze "PRUDENTIAL ASSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED", modillioned cornice and blocking course. Side bays have coped parapets with blind balustrades to flat-roofed dormers with cross windows and glazing bars. Similar 4-light mullioned and transomed dormer to centre. Coped gables. End stacks. INTERIOR: panelled doors in architraves, moulded cornices; open-well staircase around lift-shaft. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N, Harris J, and Antram N: Lincolnshire: London: 1989-: 341; Grimsby - Action for Conservation: Grimsby Borough Planning Department: List of buildings of local architectural or historical interest:

Grimsby Borough Council: 1972-: NO.14; Grimsby Planning Department: Central Conservation Area: Grimsby Borough Council: 1990-: NO.14; Grimsby Borough Council: Top Town Trail: Grimsby: 1989-: NO. 17).

Listing NGR: TA2688509367