14-16, Cowcross Street

Workshops, built around 1870. Originally designed for multiple businesses, including druggists, sundriesmen, infants' milliners, and artificial flower manufacturers, suggesting they were built speculatively. The building is constructed of yellow brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with stone and white brick dressings, and a roof concealed by a parapet. Internally, it features cast-iron columns, flitch plates, and timber beams. It stands five storeys high, with a basement, and has a seven-window front.

The ground floor is faced with stone and is divided into one broad bay flanked by two narrower ones. Pilasters with foliage capitals support moulded segmental arches, with the moulding turned through ninety degrees at the impost. The spandrels contain roundels of geometrical ornament. A bracketed cornice runs along the top. The right-hand bay has double doors flanked by pilasters, brackets of original design, and sidelights, topped by a cornice and overlight. The central and left-hand bays have cast-iron area grilles with round-arched glazing bars, with double doors in the centre of the middle bay. The upper windows are grouped in sets of two and three, with segmental arches to the first and second floors, formed with gauged white brick, stone keystones, and stone springing bands. Slim metal columns support the inner arches of the paired and triple windows. Third-floor windows have round-arched heads with chamfered white brick. Sills are set on angled brickwork on the second and third floors. A fine stone modillion cornice sits on angled brickwork, above which is a high parapet. A stack is located at one end.

The interior retains the original layout, aside from enclosed spaces around the staircase and single-storey additions to the rear. Two ranks of cast-iron columns run parallel to the street front, supporting timber beams on all but the top floor. The staircase has a wreathed and ramped handrail, an open string, and stick balusters.