Imperial Buildings

The following shall be added: SK 49 SW HIGH STREET (west side) 9/61 Imperial Buildings GV II Shop and office building with internal shopping arcade. 1907. In the Jacobean Revival style. Red brick with ashlar dressings. Slate roofs and 16 ornate brick stacks. Eastern, High Street, front 3-storey, 5-bay central section, flanked by curved tripartite bays with to the north 2 bays and to the south 1 1/2 bays. Central doorway to offices above, with flanking marble pilasters supporting brackets and a segmental arched hood, topped by a balustrade with finials, tympanum below inscribed 'IMPERIAL BUILDINGS AD 1907'. Either side are shops divided by tall marble pilasters, ,some shops such as Brooks and Brooks, and Victoria Wine retain almost complete Edwardian shopfronts. Above both floors are articulated with pairs of Doric pilasters supporting an entablature, and topped by a parapet. The first floor has tripartite windows with small pediments. The top floor has tripartite windows with segment headed moulded surrounds with keystones, and blind balustrades below. The final bay on each end is topped by a broken curved pediment with finials and an obelisk. The remaining fronts are 2-storey. The 5-bay, west front, has a central arcade entrance flanked by 2 shops, with dividing marble pilasters, and then tripartite curved corner bays, each a single shop. The 4-bay, north and south fronts each have 2 shops, an arcade entrance and a further shop beyond. Almost all these shops retain their Edwardian shopfronts. Above, these 3 fronts are articulated with pairs of Doric pilasters, with between tripartite windows in segment headed moulded surrounds with keystones. The curved corners are topped with ornate gables, and the arcade entrances are topped by pediments, linked together by an arcaded balustrade with ball finials. The internal arcade has a glazed iron roof, and shopfronts topped by curved pediments, plus a central wooden kiosk also topped with curved pediments, an open arcade and ball finials.

Listing NGR: SK4281192808