Offices For The Cooperative Wholesale Society

The following building shall be added:

LEMAN STREET TQ 3480-3481

22/894-15/894 Offices for the Cooperative Wholesale Society

II GV

Office block. 1885-7 by J F Goodey of Colchester for the Co-operative Wholesale Society. Red brick with stone dressings on 2 storey granite plinth. Corner site with clock tower. 6 storeys and semi-basement. 8 bays, turret on right angle and 3 bay right hand return. Pilasters form ground floor support dentil cornice at 2nd floor sill level. Corresponding brick pilasters rise to 6th floor forming shallow arcaded recesses with banded stone and brick arches. Main entrance in 4th bay from right; round-arched with recessed mouldings and panelled doors. 3-light oriel over. Flanked by chanelled pilaster strips. Left hand bay with ground-arched vehicle entrance and similar oriel. Ground-floor windows square-headed. 1st floor segmental arched, both mostly with 3 lights and small panes in top portions. Turret begins at 1st floor level with segmental arched, arcaded windows. 2nd floor windows paired with segmental arches, small panes in upper portions linked across pilasters by stone impost bands. 3rd and 4th floor, square-headed windows with similar glazing, stone sill bands and lintels linking across pilasters. 5th floor, venetian windows with moulded and panelled stone heads. 2nd to 4th floors above main entrance a continuous stone canted bay with arcaded windows having enriched aprons and heads. 2nd floor window apron with carved sheaf of corn, spade, and hook flanked by coats of arms. Cornice with lombard frieze beneath which blind oculi in spandrels of arch-heads and glazed oculus above entrance bay. Turret terminates in rectangular clock tower with fish scale slate mansard surmounted by wrought iron balustrade. Right hand return similar but with Words "Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited" in recessed arch heads. Interior believed to retain mahogany panelled dining room and assembly hall. This is the earlier CWS building in a street of several warehouses and offices built by the CWS adjacent to the now demolished Midlands Railway goods depot which provided a direct link to the Society's base in Manchester.

Listing NGR: TQ3408781019