Shop And Warehouse At Corner Of Fish Dock Road, Hutton Road And Cross Street

Shop and Warehouse at Corner of Fish Dock Road, Hutton Road and Cross Street, Grimsby

This is a corner property comprising two separate building ranges that together form a distinctive group of combined shops and warehouses characteristic of Grimsby Docks during the period when Grimsby was the world's foremost fishing port.

The principal range dates to 1890 and occupies the corner of Fish Dock Road and Hutton Road. It was built as a butcher's shop for Cosalt Ltd (the Grimsby Coal, Salt and Tanning Company) and was probably designed by HC Scaping of Grimsby. The building is constructed in red brick with ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof, designed in the Low Countries Baroque style. It is three storeys high with a distinctive canted angle to the corner, presenting one bay to Hutton Road and two unequal bays to Fish Dock Street.

The exterior features a chamfered plinth and pilaster strips flanking the main bay to each front. The corner has a particularly fine shopfront with a moulded round-arched opening containing a 2-fold panelled door beneath a chamfered lintel. Above the door is a painted relief in the tympanum showing a shield in scrolled foliage and strapwork surround. The shop windows to Hutton Road comprise three 4-pane windows with rounded tops, wood mullions and glazing bars, with a small-paned frieze above. A brick apron with central ashlar panel and chamfered segmental-arched glazed panel sits beneath. The section to Fish Dock Road has two 2-light mullioned windows with 2 panes each and a similar small-paned frieze, with brick and ashlar apron featuring a blind segmental-arched panel.

The wood shopfront surround features fluted pilasters with small medallions to the moulded capitals, a continuous pulvinated frieze and dosserets with 17th-century-style relief decoration of jewelled cartouches and strapwork. A moulded cornice and scrolled pediment rises above the corner entrance, with relief work in the tympanum depicting the Grimsby coat of arms in scrolled foliage. A flagpole crowns this entrance feature. The upper floors have flush ashlar bands at window sill and impost level.

The corner bay itself has a plate-glass first-floor sash beneath a segmental brick arch, and a stone panel on the second floor inscribed "AD/1890". The two main bays to either side are flanked by pilaster strips rising to shaped gables. The Hutton Road bay contains a pair of first-floor plate-glass sashes and a pair of 8/8 second-floor sashes beneath segmental arches, with a coped convex-shaped gable featuring flush bands, angle pilasters with ball finials, and a central corbelled ashlar pilaster strip rising to a panelled pier with strapwork supports and ball finial.

The Fish Dock Road front to the right has a similar pilastered bay with a single first-floor sash beneath a double timber lintel and a single second-floor glazing-bar window beneath a timber lintel. Above this is a blind round arch with three raised keystones, the central one carrying a pulvinated dosseret. A pilaster strip rises to a shaped gable with similar details to the Hutton Road front. Further right is a ground-floor waggon entrance with part-glazed double doors incorporating glazing-bar lights beneath a timber lintel, with small segmental-arched windows with sills to each side. The first floor has a part-glazed double door beneath a lintel and a single plate-glass sash to the left. The second floor contains a 2/2 sash beneath a narrow coped shaped gable with central slit-light and ball finial. A moulded brick eaves cornice runs around, and the roof is hipped to the corner.

The adjoining range to the left is of earlier 19th-century date and has its main front to Hutton Road, a secondary front to Cross Street, and a canted angle to the street corner. It is built in brown brick with red brick dressings and a stuccoed ground floor to Hutton Road, with a slate roof.

The Hutton Road front of this older range features an early 20th-century channelled rustication on the ground floor, a sill band and dentilled cornice. Two groups of four 1/1 sashes to the right sit in architraves, while to the left is an entrance with a recessed panelled door and overlight in a surround featuring fluted pilasters and dosserets and a moulded segmental pediment. To the left of this is a single-pane window in a pilastered wooden surround. The rustication continues around the canted corner bay, with a window in a pilastered and pedimented surround similar to the Hutton Road entrance. First-floor windows have glazing bars and stone sills beneath cambered brick arches. The second floor has four 6/6 horizontal sliding sashes with similar sills and arches, and a wide loading door to the right with double doors beneath a segmental brick arch and a timber hoist-beam at eaves level. Stepped brick eaves are present, with the roof hipped to the left. The canted angle to the corner has a stuccoed first floor and a single 6/6 sliding sash to the second floor.

The Cross Street front presents a rendered ground floor with early 20th-century casements; the first floor has a loading door to the left beneath a segmental arch and three glazing-bar windows; the second floor has a loading door to the left beneath a lintel with a steel hoist arm above and two glazing-bar windows. All openings feature brick arches and stone sills.

The interior has not been inspected.

These ranges are a notable example of the combined shops and warehouses that characterize Grimsby Docks, representing the period when Grimsby was the world's foremost fishing port. Cosalt was one of the largest fishing industry companies, with branches worldwide. Other former Cosalt buildings in Grimsby include the Waterproof Clothing Factory in Robinson Street East, the Net Workshop attached to the Fisher Lads Home on Victor Street, and the Grimsby Cordage Works on Convamore Road.