76-80, OLD BROAD STREET EC2

Nos 76 to 80 on Old Broad Street, dating from around 1860, feature a symmetrical stone Italianate facade. The building has four storeys and nine bays, with modern shops at the ground floor that include a central arched entrance topped by a bracketed cill band. There are moulded cill bands at the second and third floors. The first floor has round arched windows with a moulded impost band, and the central five openings are grouped under a connected row of triangular pediment hoods that have lion masks at the valleys between them. At either end, there are shallow canted bays with pediment hoods above the central windows. The second floor has round arched windows arranged in a pattern of 2+5+2, featuring impost bands and carved tympana above the arches with plain keystones. The third floor has square-headed windows grouped in the same manner as the second floor, with their heads penetrating the architrave to reach the crowning entablature. The building is finished with a bracketed cove cornice and has plain yellow brick return elevations.