13 Cheapside

13 Cheapside is a wool-stapler’s warehouse dating from the first quarter of the 19th century, and now used as offices. The building is a three-storey block facing Cheapside, with a rear façade to Carter Street.

The front of the building is constructed of hand-made red brick in an English Garden Wall bond pattern, where four stretcher courses of brick alternate with each header course. The brickwork is painted up to the level of the first-floor sills. The five bays feature segmental-arched brick heads over all openings, and stone sills to the windows. The outer openings are wider than those flanking the central loading bay, which retains its original loading doors. The ground-floor windows are modern sliding sash windows with sidelights to the outer ones. The windows above are smaller, modern casement windows of a consistent size; the outer ones have brick infill to the jambs of the openings. A vertical brick joint marks the boundary with number 11 to the left, but no clear boundary exists with number 15 to the right.

The rear façade is mainly of brown brick, again laid in English Garden Wall bond. It is largely blank at the second and first floor levels. The ground floor and basement incorporate bands of squared sandstone rubble alternating with brick. At the extreme right, sandstone is used for the basement only, which has a rendered plinth. Modern casement windows with brick arch heads (in the basement) and timber lintels (on the first floor) have been inserted. Vertical mortar joints mark the boundaries with number 15 on the left (which is slightly taller and oversails at the eaves) and number 11 on the right, which is lower. The eaves have been raised in the section adjacent to number 11. A modern external air-conditioning unit is located at ground-floor level on the rear facade; this is specifically excluded from the listing as not contributing to the building’s special architectural or historic interest, though alterations affecting the building’s overall character might still require listed building consent.

The interior of the warehouse has been largely modernised, but retains significant structural features including hewn purlins and king-post roof trusses. Two of these trusses have retained hoist gear suspended between them.