22-25, HIGH OUSEGATE

Nos. 22-25 High Ousegate is a pair of houses with shops, now used as shops and offices. Nos. 22-24 were built around 1840, while No. 25 was added later as infill in 1903. The shopfront of No. 22 was replaced in the late 20th century, and Nos. 24 and 25 share a shopfront from 1903.

The buildings are constructed of pink-grey brick in Flemish bond for Nos. 22-24, featuring a timber eaves cornice and a slate roof with a brick stack on the left end and a rendered stack on the right end. No. 25 is made of orange brick in stretcher bond, with ashlar dressings and a parapet.

The exterior of Nos. 22-24 has a four-storey, four-window front, while No. 25 has a four-storey, one-window front. The shopfront for Nos. 24 and 25 is framed by panelled pilasters, which are relief carved with fruits, leaves, and flowers entwined in ribbon, standing on tall geometric panelled pedestals. Above is a plain frieze beneath a moulded dentilled cornice, which is supported by consoles decorated with guilloche mouldings and capped by terminal gablets with foliage tendril carvings. The deeply recessed replacement glazed doors and overlight are set between a curving arcade of elliptical arched windows on slender Composite colonnettes with moulded bases, beneath a margin-glazed clerestory, with spandrels carved with rosettes.

On the first and second floors, Nos. 22-24 feature 12-pane sash windows, while the third floor has squat 6-pane sashes, all with painted stone sills and flat arches. No. 25 has a two-storey, five-light canted bay window on the first and second floors, with moulded mullions, transoms, sills, and cornices. The third-floor window is set back and obscured by a parapet, which has terminal piers carved with lion masks in high relief, along with a moulded and dated rainwater head at the right end. The interior has not been inspected.