1 and 1a, Foregate Street

A shop with offices above, dating from the 1880s, with later alterations including a shop front from the 1980s. The building is constructed of reddish-brown brick in both Flemish and header bonds, with stone dressings and a concealed brick stack. The plan is curved to form a right angle. It exhibits detailing characteristic of the Aesthetic Movement.

The building is four storeys high, with one window on the first floor and two on the right return. The first and second floors have single-pane sashes, while the third floor has two-pane sashes. The first-floor windows have round heads, while the others have cambered heads, all within plain reveals with roll mouldings. The first-floor windows have moulded sills supported on brackets; the second- and third-floor windows have moulded bands that project to form sills with brackets below the windows. The first-floor windows are set within brick and stone arches with roll-moulded hoods on carved imposts and shaped keystones featuring foliate decoration. The second and third floors have similar arches, with the second-floor keystones decorated with sunflowers and the third-floor keystones plain. There are console brackets, a frieze, and a cornice topped with a coped parapet. On the corner, a clock is set at first-floor level and a barometer at second-floor level, both within circular brick surrounds.

The interior has not been inspected.

Historically, in the 18th century, Foregate Street was known as "the mall". Tymbs' Worcester Guide of 1802 noted that it was used as a fashionable promenade. The building is part of a group that includes numbers 1-6, 57-66 Foregate Street, Berkeley's Hospital, Hop Market, numbers 14, 15 and 19 The Foregate, and numbers 3, 5 and 7 Sansome Street.

Number 1 occupies a visually important corner site, contributing significantly to the entrance to Worcester city centre via The Foregate and The Cross, and is a good example of a late 19th-century commercial building.