59 And 60, High Street

This building, comprising numbers 59 and 60 High Street, was built in 1901 as The (new) Central Coffee Tavern with shops and offices above. Later alterations occurred, including renovations in 1997. Designed by Lewis Sheppard of Worcester, the building is constructed of reddish-orange brick in Flemish bond, with terracotta dressings, floor bands, horizontal banding to the first floor, architraves, a parapet, a turret, and gables. The roof is tiled, with copper covering the dome.

The building is in a Queen Anne Revival style and occupies a corner site, presenting a continuous design with a full-height bow at the angle, topped by a turret, and wide attic gables at the outer ends. The High Street facade is four storeys high, with two first-floor windows plus the bow. Full-height pilaster strips run between the bays from the first floor, the right-hand pilasters continuing as plinths to the right gable, which is surmounted by urns. The ground floor features a boarded-up entrance to the angle, originally having a moulded, round-arched surround and a cambered-arched hood, with acanthus scroll moulding and a shield, with the hoodmould continuing as an ovolo-moulded continuous cornice over the ground floor. The first floor has continuous sill bands and mullion and transom windows, with curved windows on the plan at the angles, featuring engaged Doric columns and shield and foliate scroll moulding to blind lunettes. The ground floor is largely covered with boarding. A continuous cornice over the first floor acts as the sill band to the second-floor windows. The bow features three mullion and transom windows, all with pulvinated friezes and cornices. The turret on the third floor has three windows and a moulded band with foliate scrolls and masks, topped by a modillion cornice. The third floor also features two single-light windows with eared architraves, and three 2-light windows. A continuous frieze and dentil cornice runs along the top, surmounted by an open balustrade between the turret and the attic gable on the right, which has a 3-light window within a pilastered surround with a shield above. Attic dormers are located behind the parapet. A similar facade extends to the left return (St Swithin's Street), featuring two 3-light and two 2-light mullion and transom windows to each of the upper storeys.

The interior was not inspected. Lewis Sheppard served as diocesan architect for Worcester from approximately 1893 to 1905 and was also responsible for the Laslett Almshouses on Friar Street. The Central Coffee Tavern subsequently became the Central Temperance Hotel and Restaurant, and then a Cadena Café. This is a richly ornamented example of Edwardian commercial architecture, occupying a significant corner site and helping to frame the view along High Street and St Swithin's Street.