Bentalls Depository

Bentalls Depository, located on Clarence Street, is a depository and store built between 1935 and 1936 by Maurice Webb. The building features a rendered steel frame and a hipped Spanish tile roof, showcasing a grand Spanish/Italianate style. It stands three storeys tall with an attic above an open ground floor and has a seven-window range with a hipped roof over a central tower. The central entry is square-headed, and the building has square-headed metal casements with central opening lights, which are flanked by green shutters. Notable architectural details include wide banded quoin strips, a cill band at the attic storey that is interrupted by a tall central window flanked by shutters set in a keyed semicircular moulded arch, tiled lettering beneath the eaves of the central tower, and wide bracketed eaves. The rear elevation facing Clarence Street also features a central tower and three-bay side elevations in a similar style. The interior has not been inspected. This building is recommended for its unusually good quality as an industrial structure, with hacienda-style detailing applied to classical proportions on an American scale.