23-26 Market Place

This is a commercial terrace constructed in the early 19th century to designs by Henry Briant and Nathaniel Briant. The principal, east-facing elevation is faced with rendered ashlar Bath Stone, with slate roofing and rear elevations of exposed red brick. The terrace comprises three properties, numbers 23-26 Market Place, forming a single four-story volume arranged as a quadrant due to their shared convex east elevation. Each property is two bays wide, with a largely glazed shopfront at ground-floor level and an entrance doorway between each building. The buildings are separated by coupled Doric pilasters with fluted capitals that stretch from the first floor to the parapet. The first-floor windows are six-over-six glazing bar sashes in neoclassical surrounds with cornices and carved brackets. The second-floor windows are similarly six-over-six glazing bar sashes in neoclassical surrounds but without cornices. The third-floor windows are square three-over-three sashes. The building is topped by a continuous parapet with a moulded cope and cornice spanning numbers 24 and 26. Numbers 25 and 26 have two pitched roofs oriented east-west, one covering the front eastern half and another the rear western half. The front eastern halves of numbers 23 and 24 are covered by a continuous hipped roof with east-west slopes, while the rear portions are covered by flat roofs. Chimney stacks rise on the party wall between numbers 24 and 25, and between numbers 26 and 27. The rear elevation, which was not inspected, is understood to contain various bays of fenestration and a spiral staircase spanning numbers 25 and 26.