Great Western Arcade

GREAT WESTERN ARCADE 1. 5104 City Centre B2 Great Western Arcade SP 0787 SW 30/7 II 2. 1875-6, by W H Ward. Stone. Three storeys; 4 bays, the outer 2 narrow, the third containing the entrance to the arcade proper. Ground floor with modern shops and an inserted mezzanine floor above, where the tops of the coupled Corinthianesque columns appear. They carry a b road entablature with dentilled cornice. First floor with coupled columns to boldly bracketted cornice, a window with columns to entablature with guilloche decoration and pediment, a tripartite sash window, the richly moulded arch to the arcade proper with allegorical figures in the spandrels and, finally, another window like the first. Second floor with a single window 2 triplets and another single window with vertical floriated panels between them. First and second floor windows with banding in the Mannerist style. Within the arcade, a large 'triumphal arch', the central arch the entrance to the arcade, the outer bays represented, on the ground floor by the shops and, on the upper floor, by the balcony above them. The shops are left and right with iron railings over serving as balcony to the set-back first floor whose arched windows in moulded surrounds are separated by pilasters and grouped in threes by larger panelled pilasters to entablature with bold cornice. Glazed roof. Part way down the arcade, the evenness of the rhythm is broken by large bows left and right. The Colmore flow end of the arcade entirely altered and of no interest.

Listing NGR: SP0707887094