43 Castle Street

This is a townhouse constructed in the late 18th century and extended during the mid-19th century. It was converted to offices by 1953.

The front elevation is built of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, featuring a timber and stone doorcase and iron railings. The rear (south) elevation is of vitrified, silver-grey brick in a header bond pattern with red-brick detailing and a timber doorcase. The roof is covered in slate with lead-covered, timber dormers.

The building follows a double-pile plan. The north elevation, facing Castle Street, is two storeys high and has five bays, while the rear (southern) elevation, overlooking Rose Walk, is three storeys high and also has five bays. The roof is M-shaped, including three round-arched dormers facing onto Castle Street. The gable end walls of the northern half of the building, largely concealed by later construction, originally had Flemish gables. Large brick chimney stacks rise from the gable end walls between the front and rear pitched roofs.

The Castle Street facade is symmetrically arranged, with a central doorway flanked by two pairs of timber sash windows with six-over-six glazing, flat-arched heads, black painted sills, and five matching sash windows on the first floor. The doorway has a six-panelled door with a sunburst cast-iron fanlight, set within a Doric porch with stone columns rising from stone bases to a timber, moulded open pediment. Early 19th-century iron spearhead railings enclose a narrow front area on either side of the doorway. A timber or plaster dentil cornice runs above the first-floor window heads, followed by a red-brick, stone-coped parapet.

The rear elevation is symmetrically arranged over three storeys plus a basement and uses silver-grey brickwork in a header bond pattern with red-brick window surrounds connected by red brick columns. The raised ground floor contains a central entrance with a modern, half-glazed door and a sunburst fanlight, set within a timber porch with Doric pilasters and a moulded, open pediment, accessed via a late 20th-century brick staircase. Pairs of recent timber sash windows are located on either side of the doorway. The first and second floors have five evenly-spaced timber sash windows with six-over-six glazing and painted cills. A dentil cornice in rubbed red brick sits between the first and second floors. Four windows with flat-arched heads are at basement level.

The interior of the front range is believed to contain a staircase dating from around 1800.