14 Cavendish Arcade and 3-6 The Colonnade

This parade of shops, known as 14 Cavendish Arcade and 3-6 The Colonnade, was built in 1864, likely to designs by the architect Henry Currey. It was remodelled in 1900, and a cast-iron and glass canopy was added in 1909.

The building is constructed primarily of ashlar sandstone, although much of the sandstone is now hidden behind render. It features timber and glass shopfronts and a slate roof. The eastern elevation, which forms a colonnade, is of cast iron and glass.

The building consists of a single-storey range of shop units, originally arranged within eight segmental-arched openings and two flat-headed openings at the north end. Three of the arches at the south end have been remodelled in the late 20th century and are now unified as one large shop unit with fully glazed shopfronts above a granite plinth. Four intermediate bays contain separate shop units with matching tripartite timber shopfronts: each shopfront has three round arches rising from the stall riser, within a segmental arched frame, with a doorway located within the southernmost arch of each bay (though at number 3, the doorway is in the northernmost arch). The northernmost segmental arch now serves as an entrance to the Cavendish Shopping Arcade. The northernmost bay is faced with ashlar sandstone and has large windows within a timber frame, topped with a stone parapet. Adjoining the parade to the south is an ashlar sandstone section, originally part of the Thermal Baths and now forming part of a shopping arcade. A glazed canopy runs along the entire length of the eastern colonnade, supported by eighteen ornate cast-iron columns on stone or concrete plinths. The canopy features floriated spandrels, a frieze with an interlocking circles design, and a curved glass roof with distinctive cast-iron ridge detail.

Number 5 The Colonnade, formerly Blezard’s Chemist, was originally noted, when first listed in 1970, to contain fine 19th-century shop fittings.

The building was formerly listed under the address 1-6 The Colonnade.