355, STRAND WC2

No. 355 Strand is a building that dates back to around 1850, with a refacing that may have been done by Charles Gray, originally an 18th-century house. The building is finished in stucco and topped with a slate roof, showcasing Venetian Gothic details. It stands four storeys tall with a dormered mansard roof and features three windows across its front.

The ground floor has been altered with a mid-20th-century shop front. The first floor features a slightly advanced, nearly full-width five-bay colonetted arcade, complete with drip moulds on carved stops and incised roses in the spandrels, along with a dog tooth string course above. The second floor has recessed sash windows, which are the original openings from before the refacing, adorned with superimposed blind arched heads that have enriched drip moulds and panelled tympana. The third floor has plain sash windows but includes incised ornamentation on the lintels beneath an elaborate false machicolation, topped with a quatrefoil pierced parapet and flanked by corbelled pinnacle-dies. This building is noted for its early use of Venetian Gothic details and its contribution to the group interest of the area.