Tom Taylor And Sons Shop And Warehouse

Tom Taylor and Sons Shop and Warehouse, Fish Dock Road, Grimsby

A fishermens' outfitters shop and warehouse built in the late 19th century for J Bygrave Ltd, situated at the Docks. The building is architecturally significant as one of the most impressive and well-preserved examples of the combined shop and warehouse type that characterises Grimsby Fish Docks, dating from the period when Grimsby was the world's foremost fishing port.

The Fish Dock Road front is rendered in red brick with stone dressings and displays Low Countries Baroque styling. The Surtees Street front is faced in yellow brick with red brick dressings. The roof is covered in Welsh slate.

The Fish Dock Road elevation rises three storeys with five first-floor windows. A plinth with chamfered ashlar cap runs across the base. To the left stands an entrance with a recessed panelled door and overlight set within a keyed segmental-arched surround flanked by brick pilasters. The ashlar head features tall fluted dosserets supporting a scrolled pediment with a relief-carved tympanum containing a cartouche in a foliate surround. To the right is a fine shop front with a recessed central entrance containing a part-glazed panelled door in a panelled pilastered surround with moulded cornice. The entrance floor displays ornate polychrome mosaic with the inscription "J. BYGRAVE LTD" within a floral border.

The shop window has moulded sills, slender columned wooden mullions with Ionic capitals, and large single panes below with frosted glass and geometric glazing bars above. An ornate carved wood panel with scrolled decoration sits above the entrance. The shop front surround is finished in green-tiled work with a moulded and pulvinated plinth, panelled pilasters bearing moulded medallions, Ionic capitals with vine drops, and scrolled acanthus brackets with tall dosserets capped by segmental pediments with moulded tympana. A frieze with egg and dart cornice runs along the top, followed by a 20th-century name board, cornice and hood.

The first floor features a central three-light window flanked on each side by two single-light windows, the far left window being shorter. All have wooden mullions and transoms with single panes below and glazing bars above, moulded stone sills, and rubbed brick segmental arches. The second floor carries single keyed oculus windows with glazing bars in the outer bays. A projecting central gabled panel, carried on a pulvinated ashlar string course, contains three stepped round-headed windows: a two-light central window flanked by single lights, each light with three panes and the central window with a geometric fanlight. Round-arched hoodmoulds link the windows, with the central window featuring a tall keystone supporting a pilaster strip above. The coped central gable has shaped kneelers and a raised apex capped by a moulded ashlar pediment with relief-carved tympanum, bisected by the central pilaster strip topped by a ball finial. Side bays display moulded ashlar eaves cornices and moulded kneelers. A tall central stack and rear right stack have corbelled brick cornices with ashlar caps.

The Surtees Street front has three first-floor openings: a central board door flanked by three-light windows, the right window boarded. The first floor features a central three-light window with a protective metal grille, flanked by taller windows. The second floor contains a central board door with a timber hoist arm above, flanked by shorter windows of similar design. All windows have three lights with wooden mullions and transoms, segmental red brick arches, and projecting stone sills (except the central first-floor window). A corbelled four-course brick verge runs to the gable.

The interior includes a cast-iron column and original fittings, though the space was not fully investigated. The building was originally known as the Yarmouth Stores and operated as a fishermens' outfitter and sea-boot maker, a use that continues today.