23, The Tything

WORCESTER

SO8455NE THE TYTHING 620-1/8/627 (East side) 11/02/87 No.23

GV II

Offices and warehouse, now offices. 1907 by J.W.Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton with later additions and alterations. Red brick with cream-coloured stone dressings. Partially concealed slate roof to right with coped parapet to end-gable. Stacks to left and right with stone bands and cap. Main roofs are concealed behind parapets. Steel window frames. Wrought-iron railings to basement windows. PLAN: Although occupying several burgage plots, the main axis runs at right angles to the street. Central entrance. Principal (west) elevation: Subtly assymetric facade in a style reminiscent of Mackintosh; central gabled entrance bay with parapeted wings; wing to right breaks forward; diminishing pilaster buttresses flank central bay and wings. 2 storeys with semi-basement; attic storey to centre and right. 5 first-floor windows. Stone detailing includes window surrounds with continuous sill, head, and intermediate bands; copings to parapets; door surround and carved panel to balcony above; apex of central gable with cartouche and date, row of 3 blind-windows dividing fenestration below. Mullion and transom window to centre bay has semi-circular arched head and extends through from first-floor to attic floor; 3-lights to both floors: This is flanked at first-floor level by a canted oriel window with a further 4-light mullion window to the left-wing and a 5-light mullion window to the right. The fenestration to the elevated ground-floor is similar although the windows are taller; 2-light mullion windows flank the entrance, a corbel bracket at their heads carrying the oriels above. The shorter windows to the basement align with those above and are protected by simple square-section railings surmounted by a scroll. All the windows are multi-pane with narrow glazing bars. 10 steps to recessed entrance; carved door-surround with spiral motif to bracket at internal angles; corbelled balcony panel above is inscribed 'KAY & Co' with lozenge to each side. Ashlar-lined vestibule with later plate-glass screen and doors to rear. Large, canted, flat roof dormer with dentilled eaves to centre of right wing, paired side-hung casements to each face; further linked pair of small box dormers to left; all partially concealed by parapet. Left (north) return: Very long elevation with 5 shallow projecting bays each surmounted by a gable and with a semi-circular headed window to the upper-floor. Roof concealed by parapet. Similar banded decoration, pilaster buttresses, and fenestration to main elevation. INTERIOR: not inspected. In its use of materials, abstracted detail and compositional form, this is a fine example of Edwardian factory architecture. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Worcestershire: Harmondsworth: 1968-1985: 333; Worcester's Memory Lane.: Grundy M: Worcester: 1987-: 44).