18-20, COVENTRY STREET WC2

Nos 18 to 20 on Coventry Street, built between 1892 and 1894 by Treadwell and Martin, was originally Scott's Restaurant and Oyster Bar and is now part of the Trocadero complex. The building is made of painted Bath stone and features a style reminiscent of Early French Renaissance, complete with carved decorations. It occupies a prominent corner site with Great Windmill Street, showcasing gabled fronts. The facade facing Great Windmill Street has five windows, while the slightly asymmetrical Coventry Street front has four windows and a turret at the corner. The structure has four storeys and an attic within the gables. The ground floor is arcaded, supported by short columns made of polished dark Labrador granite on plinths. The upper floors feature windows with rounded corners at the lintels, highlighted by slender shafts that run through the storeys, with broad, clustered half shafts flanking the central three bays. Gables rise above these bays, topped with pinnacled parapets. The corner turret has an oriel window with apron panels that are richly decorated with scallop-shell carvings. There are also elaborately carved bands between the storeys.