33, Milsom Street

This is a three-storey house, with an attic, basement and a flat above, dating from roughly 1761 to 1765. It may have been designed by Thomas Jelly. In 1932, Alfred Taylor designed the shopfront, which has been altered by J Foster in 1954; much of the original shopfront surround remains. The front of the building is limestone ashlar, with rubble to the rear, and has a parapeted mansard roof covered with Welsh slate to the front and triple Roman tiles to the rear. The party wall is coped, with two ashlar stacks, incorporating some early clay pots, to the right.

The building is triple pile in plan, incorporating a cross staircase. The front features a three-window arrangement. The first floor originally had three six-over-nine sash windows; these have been altered, with large panes added below, and a two-light casement replacing the lower sash in the centre. The windows are set within ovolo moulded architraves with moulded stone sills, the left-hand section obscured by the shopfront. A frieze and cornice with a central pediment embellish the first floor. The second floor has three six-over-six sash windows in eared ovolo moulded architraves set on stone sills. The ground floor has a 20th-century shopfront to the right, featuring plate glass windows, a recessed central door, and an ionic pilaster surround, fascia and cornice. To the left is a six-panel door with flush and fielded panels, margin lights with intersecting glazing bars, and a decorative fanlight divided by reeded pilasters, a frieze and roundels at the intersections, all within a semicircular reveal. There are no openings to the basement. Two dormers containing six-over-six sashes are present in the roof. A modillion eaves cornice runs along the top, merging with the parapet shared with number 32 Milsom Street. An early 20th-century street lamp is attached to the front on an iron bracket. The rear elevation, partially visible, has six-over-six sashes to the second floor and two dormers.

Inside, a timber staircase has two turned balusters per tread, a mahogany handrail, carved cheek pieces, and an enriched modillion cornice to the hall. The staircase hall boasts an enriched moulded cornice with a frieze featuring faces, possibly cherubs, above the second-floor landing. A hall arch features fluted pilasters with enriched moulded capitals, and a relief of arabesques, likely plaster, to the soffit. The outer hall has an enriched moulded cornice with a deep frieze depicting winged lions above a rinceau frieze, and arabesques to the spandrels of the hall arch. An early 19th-century screen with a nine-pane door and decorative overlight divides the hall. The shop contains a fine Rococo ceiling, installed in 1979.