Corporation Buildings

Corporation Buildings is a terrace of local authority housing with a corner shop, built in the very early 20th century. The buildings feature painted brick walls, concrete floors, and staircases, topped with dry slate stepped roofs that have slightly projecting eaves and are hipped at the ends. There are deep brick end stacks with stepped cornices. The layout is double-depth with a mews street at the rear, and each house includes a central ground-floor through passage, divided into one-bedroom tenements.

The exterior consists of three storeys, with each house displaying a symmetrical three-window front, except for the house on the left, which has a canted corner bay that separates the shop windows from the house doorway to its right. The original windows are 12-pane horned sashes with segmental heads, and the central doorways have similar heads with overlights and panelled doors. The shop features an original pilastered nine-pane window at the front and an identical window on the left-hand return, with fluted consoles above the pilasters and moulded cornices over the fascia. Above the shop doorway is a round plaque that reads: "SIR FRANCIS DRAKE IN THE YEAR OF THE SPANISH ARMADA OWNED A HOUSE AND GROUNDS ON THIS SITE AND PROBABLY HERE RESIDED."

At the rear, each house has a four-window range with original 12-pane sash windows flanking single lights. There are flat-roofed stores with planked doors connected by dwarf walls topped with steel balustrades. The interior has not been inspected. This building is part of a complete block of early local authority housing that remains practically unaltered.