23 Cathedral Yard And 55 And 56 High Street

This building, located at 23 Cathedral Yard and 55 and 56 High Street, is a shop with offices above, dating from around the 1880s, though it may have an earlier core. It is constructed from Bath stone ashlar with red brick dressings and features a slate roof topped with spiky ridge tiles, showcasing a Gothic Revival style.

The building has a deep rectangular plan and stands four storeys high. Its symmetrical three-bay front is highlighted by a steep, coped gable with kneelers and a finial at the apex, along with stone mullioned windows. At the time of inspection, the shop front was obscured due to renovations. The central bay rises to a moulded arched head within the gable, while the outer windows are set in recesses on either side.

On the first floor, the central bay features a canted oriel window adorned with a modillion frieze and glazed with one-light high-transomed windows that have blind trefoiled heads. The flanking bays have similar flush windows with flamboyant tracery panels above the lintels. The second floor mirrors this arrangement, with a three-light window in the central bay and two-light windows in the outer bays, all topped with a modillion frieze above panels of decorated style blind tracery. The third floor has a window only in the central bay, consisting of three high-transomed lights, with the upper lights featuring arched heads beneath a brick herringbone tympanum that contains a cinquefoil. Moulded cornices on modillion brackets extend across the outer bays at the transom level of the third-floor window.

The interior has not been inspected but may retain features of interest. The building at the rear of Nos. 55 and 56, which faces onto Cathedral Yard, is built in a similar style to No. 23 Cathedral Yard. This structure is a notable example of a Victorian Gothic commercial front.