Merchant Tailors' Hall

Merchant Tailors' Hall is a guild meeting hall, later converted to offices, built between 1740 and 1741. It is constructed of rendered limestone ashlar with a roof not visible from street level. The building comprises a single-depth Great Hall and a two-storey, right-hand stair block. The style is Early Georgian. It is three storeys high with a seven-window front, and a two-window service block projecting forward to the right.

The main entrance features a fine late 17th-century shell hood, displaying the painted Arms of the Merchant Tailors’ Guild, flanked by winged cupids and a head of John the Baptist, supported on acanthus brackets, with a pulvinated frieze and architrave over double six-panel doors. The plain basement windows have flat surrounds and entrances at each end, separated by angled coach bollards. Windows have architraves and pulvinated friezes; the right-hand section has nine-pane sashes, with a small six-pane window above the door, and the Great Hall features tall, twenty-pane sashes with alternate segmental and triangular pediments. Thick glazing bars are present. A conical lead hopper and downpipe is located in the re-entrant angle.

The interior includes an entrance hall with panelled wainscot, leading to a ground floor room with full panelling on two walls and a dogleg staircase. The staircase has an uncut string, column balusters, and a moulded rail. The former hall now has an inserted 20th-century floor, and features a rear bolection-moulded fireplace with a Bristol Delft tiled back and a panelled overmantel to a cornice. Bolection-moulded architraves are present throughout. Originally, the hall included double doors at the north end, beneath a musicians' gallery, a high panelled dado, and a deep coved ceiling. The building is now connected internally with No. 41 Broad Street.

According to Ison, the shell hood might be older, possibly originating from the 17th-century hall that it replaced. The courtyard in front is paved with Pennant cobbles and contributes significantly to the historic setting.