10 Pelham Street and 2A & 2B High Street

Large and ornately detailed Neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau retail premises built in 1902–1905 for Boot's Chemists, designed by Albert Nelson Bromley, extended in the 1920s, refurbished in 1974, and now in other commercial use. The building is constructed with a glazed terracotta facade, plate glass shop fronts, timber window surrounds, and slate roofs.

The building is rectangular in overall plan form with rounded corners to the north-west and south-west corners, with an early 20th century extension located to the east. It has three storeys and an attic. The main elevation to Pelham Street comprises 8 bays, while the High Street elevation has 7 bays, with 5 further bays on the east elevation. The main entrance is on the west elevation, with additional entrances at the north-east and north-west corners.

The exterior is particularly distinguished by an ornate and highly decorated terracotta facade to both principal elevations in Neo-Renaissance classical style, with effusive use of Art Nouveau detailing to the shop fronts. The regularity of the facade is emphasised by string and cill courses which articulate the storeys, and pilasters which delineate the bays. The pilasters have dolphin motifs set within the capitals on both upper floors.

The seven bays on the right of the north elevation are higher than the rest and have large mullioned and transomed windows on the second floor; the two right-most bays on this elevation are from the later addition and have glazed panels with a higher sheen. The first-floor elevations have elliptical key-stoned cross-mullioned windows with scrolled glazing bars; some of the upper central panes contain stained glass. The second floor has bi-partite square-headed windows set in classical entablatures, the architraves supported by diminutive engaged columns with Corinthian capitals. These windows have small-pane glazing. Above is a heavy-set dentilled cornice with three balls at the top of each of the pilasters. Putti are located under the brackets which support the dentilled cornice, surmounted by a finialed balustrade, behind which is the attic roof with scrolled dormers.

The shop front is set with large plate glass windows divided by narrow mullions topped with Ionic capitals and animal masks. The transom lights are set with curvilinear Art Nouveau panels. The principal entrance on Pelham Street is off-centre and set within a deep lobby, flanked by ornately carved pilasters. The panels above the entrance lobby are set with mirrored glazing in curvilinear panels and the doorway has a large heart-shaped glazed panel above a carved single-leaf panelled door. The fascia above the lobby has further Art Nouveau panels.

The tower to the north-west corner is of three stages above the entrance, flanked by plain granite pilasters on the ground floor, with a clock supported by relief figures to the second floor set above a balcony. Above this is a turret with round-arched openings covered by a small ogee dome.

The south-west corner has large tripartite windows on the first and second floors with coloured and leaded glass panels to the transom lights. Above is a cartouche containing the Boots monogram of a Gothic-style B flanked by supporting figures in relief.

The east elevation has two bays in the same decorative style as the others; the remainder are plain and finished with fletton-type brickwork. There are further stained glass panels which have been reset in the windows of this part of the elevation.

The interior has been remodelled in the early 21st century. Four columns with decorative capitals are present on each of the ground and first floors, retained from the original late 19th-century Boots store where they supported the gallery of the light well. These have been added to by thicker columns with plainer moulded capital detailing. Some have indicator marks, prefixed with C on the ground floor and D on the first floor, many of which have been erased. No other original features remain apparent because of later alterations, but it is possible that cornicing and other decorative features remain beneath the current shop-fit. A service stair at the rear of the building retains wrought iron stick balusters, some of which have wave detailing.