The Arcade

The Arcade, built between 1872 and 1886 by Henry Joy, is a Grade II listed building located on Old Christchurch Road and Gervis Place. It is constructed of stucco in the Regency style and features facades flanked by three-storey rotundas, often referred to as 'pepper pots', which have lost their original metal-roofed domes. The first floor displays Corinthian pilasters and a dentil cornice, while the second floor has a Tuscan cornice with a blocking course.

The entrances between the rotundas were remodeled around 1935, featuring a glazed facade above a semi-circular gable with a radiating half-wheel of arched glazing bars. This design projects forward on the Gervis Place front, above a miniature glazed arcade, with a second tier of wheel arches enclosed by the dentil cornice of the gable. The Gervis Place front includes three bays of shopping frontage to the east and four to the west, also in stucco. At the west end, there is a staff entrance with pilasters and an entablature. The Old Christchurch Road front has one bay of stucco shops to the east and two to the west.

Inside, there is a notable Victorian shop front from Peter Roberts, formerly William and Treadgold, featuring arched glazing bars, flanking pilasters, and console brackets that support miniature coupled pilasters and a pediment panel. The fascia has a dentil cornice and rich openwork cresting at the center. Most upper windows are in a plain Georgian style, although some are recessed canted oriels. The interior also includes a moulded cornice that supports an iron arch-braced roof from 1872-3, which has a steeply pitched lantern.

The Arcade, along with Nos 1 to 23A, No 28, House of Fraser, and Gervis Hall (Hornes) on Gervis Place, forms a cohesive group of buildings.