Victoria Buildings

Victoria Buildings is a warehouse, office, and shop complex built around 1872, with some alterations made in the 20th century. The building features ashlar stonework and a roof, likely made of grey slate, which is hidden behind an elaborate cornice and a parapet that includes a bust of Queen Victoria in a niche. It stands four stories tall on a corner site in a Classical style, with twelve first-floor windows: eight facing Boar Lane, one at the corner, and three on New Station Street. The first-floor windows have elaborate architraves and cornices, some adorned with shallow triangular pediments, while the second floor has more restrained surrounds and the third floor is plain. Notably, the five windows on the right side of the Boar Lane facade on the second and third floors are taller, with their heads breaking the decorative moulding line. The ground floor has 20th-century shop fronts. The facade is divided horizontally by moulded bands at the sill level and vertically by panelled pilasters. The interior has not been inspected. Historically, the building was designed to connect the street frontages of New Station Street and Boar Lane when the new station access was created in 1873. The original occupants included a shirt-maker and hosier, a solicitor, a lithographer and stationer, another hosier, and a mantle warehouse. By 1886, the mantle warehouse included a factory on the fourth floor. Originally, the pilasters on the parapet supported elaborate urns.