32, Gay Street

This is a three-storey house with an attic and basement, now a shop with accommodation above, dating from approximately 1735 to 1740. It was altered in the early and late 19th century. The house was designed by John Wood the Elder and is located on Gay Street, which is named after Robert Gay, a surgeon and landowner.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with a slate mansard roof, featuring dormers and a moulded stack to the right-hand party wall. It has a double-depth plan and is stepped slightly forward, its returned coped parapet and cornice aligning with number 33. The upper floors have plate glass windows, with those on the first floor having splayed reveals and lowered sills. A six-panel door with a cobweb overlight is set back on the left side of the ground floor. A projecting shop to the right, altered in the early 19th century and again in 1876 by C. Wibley, has a six-pane shop window with segmental heads on the sides and curved glass in the centre, flanked by panelled pilasters and fluted consoles to the cornice. There are two flat-topped dormers, the left one being paired, both with plain sashes. The rear elevation is not visible.

The interior includes an original timber staircase with Doric newels, and a very wide window to the rear, which has been replaced with a casement. The ground lease for the plot was taken by John Wood the Elder in 1733, and building leases were granted from 1734 onwards. The house appears to have been one of the last built on Gay Street, which was originally linked to Barton Street. It forms part of an irregular terrace of three houses, developed in conjunction with numbers 2 to 12 George Street. The building has been altered over time, which accounts for its lower group value than other sections of Gay Street.