8, Piccadilly Bd1

No. 8 Piccadilly is a former History and Scientific Institute, dated 1871. It is built in an Italianate style with slight Renaissance detailing. The building is three storeys high and constructed of dressed sandstone intended to resemble brick, with ashlar dressings to the ground floor. The front has three bays. The ground floor window bays are flanked by grooved piers rising from the plinth, with a foliate band acting as a coping to the entablature, which also serves as a sill band to the first floor. A second sill band is present above the first-floor windows. A deep eaves cornice, supported by modillion brackets, runs along the top of the building. Modern shop fronts have been inserted into the ground-floor window bays, and modern glazed shop doors occupy the centre. The upper part of the original doorway remains, featuring large console brackets supporting a balconette with a pierced circle balustrade. The first-floor windows are two-light designs, with foliate-capped pilasters defining the bays, set within eared architrave surrounds; the centre window is narrower and has flanking pilasters, a frieze, and a pediment with an acroterion. A plaque above the centre of the top floor displays a medallion relief of an eagle and an inscription. The flanking windows on the top floor are simpler, with plain dividing mullions.