Central Market

The Central Market is a market hall built in 1938 to designs by Robert Atkinson. It incorporates the frontage of an earlier Butter Market constructed in 1737. The building's structure is a steel frame faced with brick and ashlar limestone, covered by pantile roofing and glazing.

The building is rectangular, with entrances on its north and east sides, and fronts onto City Square to the north. It is a single-storey building beneath a hipped, half-glazed roof. The north, east, and west elevations are designed in a neo-classical style to complement the 18th-century facade of the former Butter Market, which is incorporated into the north elevation. This detailing includes a moulded stone plinth, a rusticated limestone ashlar main section with blind arcading and round-arched openings, and an ashlar parapet featuring alternating balustraded and solid sections, with large urns on the four corners.

The main, north elevation is symmetrical across twelve bays, with the four central and two outermost bays projecting slightly. The re-used two-storey facade of the Butter Market is centrally positioned. The ground floor is of rusticated ashlar with two round-arched entrances featuring wrought ironwork. Above the entrances is a stone plat band with a central datestone inscribed "JOHN LOBSEY MAYOR 1737". The first floor is of 20th-century brown brick with rusticated ashlar quoins and a Venetian window. Above this is a stone pediment containing a carved cartouche with swags. Bays adjacent to the Butter Market facade, and at the eastern and western ends of the elevation, have blind, flat-arched openings with iron-grated windows above. The remaining intermediate bays contain blind, round arches.

The east and west elevations are symmetrical over five bays and of similar design. The three central bays contain round-arched openings, while the two outer bays project and contain a smaller, flat-arched opening beneath an iron-grated window. The central arch of each elevation is open, with a double doorway and a glazed upper section, while the other openings are blind; the eastern elevation's blind openings are infilled with smooth-finished ashlar, and the western elevation’s with brick. A section of the west elevation’s parapet has been replaced in brick.

A lower, brick-built element with a flat roof is attached to the south rear of the market hall, containing ancillary spaces and a public convenience. This section has a plainer brick finish, but incorporates some design elements from the Central Market, including a moulded stone plinth, a flat-arched ashlar doorway, and a stone parapet. The rear, south elevation is not visible due to the surrounding urban layout.