Rotunda Buildings

These shops with offices above were built around 1820 to 1834, with later additions and alterations, including shop fronts dating to the 19th century. The building is stucco over brick and has a hipped slate roof with stacks on the right side.

The exterior is three storeys and features four first-floor windows arranged in a 3:1 pattern, including a full-height bow that projects to the left. Stucco detailing includes pilasters with horizontal rustication on either side of the bow, extending through the ground and first floors. Ground-floor windows have tooled architraves; the second-floor window on the right has corbelled feet. A moulded sill band runs along the second floor, topped by a crowning frieze and cornice with a blocking course and copings. Most windows are 6/6 sashes. The central first-floor window of the bow has a floating segmental pediment. An entrance to the right is a double part-glazed door with an overlight, set within a round-arched surround with a keystone that appears to support the bowed lower portion of the upper storey. A later 19th-century shop front with a curved plan includes a central part-glazed door with a dentil frieze and overlight, supported by slender pilasters in the bow. Further 6/6 sashes are found on the left and right returns; the left return has an irregular fenestration with 6/6 sashes at the upper stage. The ground floor of the left return features a shop front with plate-glass windows between slender mullions and carved spandrel decoration, canted into a part-glazed door with a dentil frieze and a swan-neck pediment and overlight.

The right return has three first-floor windows. The ground floor features a shop front with a tripartite window using ashlar mullions and a tooled architrave. Adjacent to this is another shop front with slender modillions and caps, and glazing canted into a part-glazed door with a dentil frieze.

The interior was not inspected.

The building appears on Merrett’s Map of 1834, but without the bow. It forms a group with numbers 2-8 (even) Montpellier Street.