61, St Thomas Street

No. 61 on St Thomas Street is a mid-19th century commercial building in Weymouth. It is constructed of red brick with Portland stone dressings and features a slate roof. The building showcases a strong Venetian Gothic style, with its facade remaining largely unchanged.

The exterior consists of three storeys and three windows. The upper level has a small paired sash window with arched top lights, flanked by two plain sashes set in flush alternating jambs, with flush lintel and sill bands. Below these, there are paired pointed lights with a central colonnette shaft, all under a continuous label with small leaf stops, and flush alternating chamfered jambs with a sill band.

The ground floor boasts a tall shop front supported by fluted pilasters and consoles, topped with a dentil cornice and deep fascia. The recessed door features fluted pilasters and is glazed above a fielded panel, with narrow sidelights. This entrance is flanked by plate-glass display windows, all beneath a very deep transom light, although the original glass has been replaced with plastic sheet. To the left, there is a stone panel with a wide pair of original panelled doors set in a moulded doorway with double colonnettes and a stilted segmental head above a deep tripartite transom light, which has a moulded arch and spandrels with blind quatrefoils.

Above the ground floor, the building displays flush alternating quoins, and the deep eaves are supported by moulded kneelers leading to coped raised gables with closely spaced carved stone brackets. A large brick stack is located to the right. The rear wall features yellow and red brickwork arranged in four bays, with large four-pane sashes set in segmental heads, an eaves stack, and a long gabled wing.

Inside, the interior is quite plain, with simple four-panel doors. However, the main dogleg staircase is notable, featuring heavy turned newels topped with acorn finials, turned balusters, and a solid moulded string. The staircase hall floor is made of patterned tiles. Although it differs from the traditional 18th or early 19th century street fronts of Melcombe Regis, this building presents a distinctive and well-preserved facade that reflects John Ruskin's mid-century enthusiasm for Venetian architecture.