53, High Street

1. 5401 HIGH STREET (West Side) ---------- No 53 TQ 0107 1/156

II GV

1. 1899-1900. Architects Wheeler and Lodge of Horsham and London. Newspaper office. Ashlar ground floor. Brick 1st floor. Applied timber and pebbledash 2nd floor. Pitched tile roof. 6 hexagonal red brick chimneys linked by an elaborate cornice. 3 storeys and attics. Groundfloor glazed with moulded wooden mullions with grotesque label stops, moulded wooden segment-arched transoms, and lead glazing bars. 2 12-panelled doors, central one with upper 6 panels glazed, both with dentilled cornices and brass art nouveau handles . Projecting ashlar cornice with strapwork cartouche, giving date of establishment (1853). 1st floor has 2 oblong bays with mullion and transom windows, casements with lead glazing bars, and a dentilled cornice. 2nd floor jettied on elaborate consoles (diamond facets, strapwork, triglyphs and mutules all featured). Close-spaced studs, with elaborate terms at either end, carrying 2 more consoles, identical to the others. 3 projecting bays, central one segmental, flanking 2 canted, and taken on consoles, all with lead glazing bars and dentilled cornices. Attic storey jettied; embattled bressummer. Close studded, with central term, strapwork bargeboard and baluster finial. On ground floor is remarkable late C19 office interior. Front and back walls glazed, site walls covered in glazed tiles. High desks with embattled parapets all round, and elaborate brass racks and desks for keeping ledgers.

Nos 51 to 67 (odd) form a group.

Listing NGR: TQ0181907137