Nova House

Nova House is an office building dating from 1903, designed by Henry Williams. It is a double-depth plan arranged around a central light well. The building is constructed of brick with limestone dressings and a slate mansard roof. It has two storeys, an attic, and a basement, with a nine-window range to the front and a three-storey and attic rear block.

The front elevation features a raised, rusticated basement, and the upper floors are articulated by banded pilaster strips to a modillion cornice. The parapet has square section attached balusters between panelled dies, with large ashlar dormers. The central doorway has fluted half-pilasters with faceted blocks, a key and modillion pediment, a plate-glass overlight, and double eight-panel doors. Ground-floor windows have keyed, eared Gibbs surrounds, a stepped sill band, and dentil pediments; first-floor windows have cornices. Dormers are located above, some original and some later and set behind the parapet. The left-hand return has three windows, paired dormers above each, and a third storey with panels to the lintels and an inserted central doorway. Plate-glass windows are found on the ground floor, with plate-glass sashes above. Basement windows have incised voussoirs.

The interior includes a wide entrance stair hall with a lateral stair flight featuring cantilevered stone treads and wrought-iron railings with leaf motifs. Semicircular-arched windows with stained glass illuminate the stairs from the central well. Doorcases have surrounds with fluted half-pilasters and fluted cornices, leading to two-panel doors. The hall also features a wide, bow-ended half-glazed screen with curved panes. A half-panelled room on the first floor includes a strapwork ceiling and a Jacobean style stone fireplace surround dating from around 1700, with paired Ionic columns, paired Corinthian columns to the overmantel, strapwork, and cornices, incorporating a painted panel dated 1 E 7/ 0 AM 0. A similarly styled stone fireplace surround from around 1550 is present in the ground-floor hall, featuring an overmantel with three Ionic herms, painted shields, and strapwork. These fire surrounds originated from No. 7 Small Street, which belonged to the Elton family. The building was formerly the offices of the National Telephone Co.