11, The Foregate

This is a late 19th-century shop and offices, with later additions and alterations including work from the 1970s. The building is constructed of reddish-brown brick and terracotta, with sandstone ashlar to the first floor and dressings, and has a concealed roof and a copper dome. A brick stack is located on the left end, featuring an ashlar cornice and decorative pots. The architectural style is predominantly Free Classical, influenced by the Northern Renaissance.

It is three storeys plus an attic, with four plus one windows on the first floor, including a window to the canted angle. The first-floor window to the left has bands with depressed panels, an Ionic column in antis with four bands, two pairs of Ionic columns with four bands, and another Ionic column in antis with four bands. Bands and a sunk panel are located on either side of the canted angle. The windows have ovolo-moulded sills. A continuous cornice runs over the first floor. The first-floor windows consist of a single light, three two-light windows, and a single round-arched light to the angle, all with moulded surrounds, mullions, and transoms. The angled window has a scrolled keystone, and a similar two-light mullion and transom window with Ionic columns to the antis is present on the return.

The second floor has left and central bays that break forward, with a continuous sill band. An oculus with a wreathed surround is positioned to the left and angle, the left oculus’s surround interrupted by an open pediment on corbel brackets, while the angle oculus meets the continuous cornice with an egg and dart frieze and modillions. Three two-light mullion windows with a fanlight over, in eared and shouldered tooled surrounds and with tall keystones, are also present. Cartouches are positioned between these windows and on either side of the angle. A similar round-arched window and cartouche are found on the return. The upper stage is banded, with an ashlar upshot at the left featuring an ornate cartouche and festoons. The central upshot has a three-light window with Ionic columns between, a cornice, and a segmental pediment above. Scrolls are visible at the angles and a broken pediment has a central obelisk. The tower to the angle features two oculi and shaped cornices, followed by an open octagonal dome with cambered-arched openings on each side. Pilasters are present on scrolls between the openings, with faces to the top, a cornice that breaks forward over the faces, and the dome is surmounted by an urn. A banded parapet and end acroteria, with a cartouche to the return, complete the exterior.

The ground floor has a blocked entrance to the left, which is set in panelled reveals, featuring a segmental arch and central keystone between pilasters with wreaths and scrolled console brackets to a continuous egg and dart cornice. Two similar pilasters are found to the angle and another to the right return. The remaining ground floor is occupied by a glazed shop front and an off-centre right entrance.

The interior features a dogleg staircase with a moulded handrail and stick balusters.

Numbers 11-15, The Foregate, represent a fine late Victorian commercial group, built in a spirited Northern Renaissance style.