4, South Embankment

No. 4 South Embankment is a shop with a house above, built around 1890, likely by E.H. Back. The building features a mix of construction styles, with solid side and back walls and a timber-framed show front above the ground floor, which is made of painted red brick with Bathstone ashlar dressings. It has a right lateral stack with a rendered red brick chimney shaft and a gabled slate roof adorned with pierced crested ridge tiles.

The plan is double-depth, one room wide, with an entrance lobby and stairs on the left. The exterior is four storeys high and has a two-window range on the second floor. The ornamental show front is designed in a distinctive Elizabethan style, showcasing timber framing with jettied floors, projecting bays, and balustraded balconies.

On the ground floor, there is a stone doorway on the left with a moulded surround, a 20th-century glazed door, and an overlight. The central section features a stone three-light mullion-and-transom window, while to the right is a smaller segmental arch-headed and transomed window. The first floor has a large central segmental arch-headed opening, and the second floor includes two French windows, with two casements on the third floor. All windows now have late 20th-century aluminium frames. Full-width balconies are present on the first and second floors. The framing creates narrow panels that were likely originally slate-hung, similar to other contemporary houses on the street. The top-storey framing includes braces and decorative elements, such as a brattished tie beam, which resembles the decoration on the gable bargeboards. The interior has not been inspected, but the building is included for its group value.