357-363, GOSWELL ROAD (See details for further address information)

This is a commercial building located on the south side of Goswell Road, occupying a prominent corner site opposite The Angel, and including numbers 426-428 St John Street. Constructed between 1880 and 1881 for developer Mr. McSheehan, the architects were F. and H. Francis, with builders Merritt and Ashby. It was originally a bank, with offices and shops, and now contains shops below and offices above.

The building is of Late-Italianate style, built with yellow and gold stock bricks in Flemish bond, with stone and stucco dressings. The ground floor features entrances and shopfronts of red sandstone, granite, and polished marble, while a parapet obscures the roof. The upper floors have end-wall brick stacks. The building is four storeys and has a 15-window range, arranged 1:4:1:4:1:4.

The upper floor bays are articulated by single-storey height stucco pilasters, with floors indicated by stucco panelling (first floor), bracketed details (second floor), and richly moulded sill bands (third floor). The window heights decrease as the floors ascend. The first and second floors have pedimented tripartite pilastered windows to alternating bays, while other bays feature four-pane sashes with eared architraves. The third floor has simplified tripartite windows flanked by banded stucco and small niches, with intervening bays featuring four-pane sashes flanked by stucco pilasters. A wide entablature incorporates a carved frieze and bracketed projecting cornice, topped by a stucco parapet with stone coping. A higher curved parapet along the corner reads '1880 BANK BUILDINGS'.

The ground floor of number 357 is treated in a similar Gothic style to numbers 353-355 Goswell Road. Number 359 has a late 19th-century shopfront with a recessed doorway on the left and shop windows to the right, supported by granite piers with coupled bracketed consoles and a dentilled cornice. Numbers 361-363 have a partially altered shopfront and office entrances articulated by polished granite piers, with wood-panelled doors and shop windows above marble panels. Number 428 St John Street has a 20th-century shopfront but retains original piers. Number 426 St John Street has altered 20th-century remnants of a 19th-century shopfront.