16 And 18, Southgate Street

A pair of shops with offices or dwellings, dating from around 1835, and later altered, now a bank. The front of the building facing Southgate Street is faced with ashlar stone, with a slate roof. It is a large double-depth block, with later extensions at the rear and substantial internal alterations.

The external appearance consists of four storeys and a cellar. The ground floor banking chamber has a steel-framed glazed screen inserted around 1965, replacing an ashlar front that was added around 1920 when the former shops were converted into a bank. The original ashlar front above has four bays, with a moulded string at the level of the first-floor window sills and a band at the level of the second-floor window sills. Grooved quoin strips run at the corners of the block, rising to a bold frieze and modillion cornice with dentils above the second storey. The attic storey has similar strips at the corners, a shallow crowning cornice and a parapet. The first and second floors have sash windows with 3x4 panes of glazing bars, set within openings with moulded architraves. Cornices are positioned above the first-floor windows, supported on consoles. The attic storey has plain window openings, each with a pair of plain casements.

The side elevation to Cross Keys Lane is of brick with stone dressings, featuring three bays of unequal spacing, with string cornices at the same levels as those on the front. Early 20th-century alterations have been made to the ground-floor windows. Windows in the upper floors of the right-hand bay are blocked; the remaining windows have sash windows with glazing bars set within openings with flat arches of raised-and-stepped voussoirs. A blocked window opening, formerly a stairwell, has a round arched head of raised stone voussoirs.

The interior has largely been altered and refitted. On the first floor, behind the two bays to the right of the front elevation, one room retains a decorative plaster cornice, featuring a band of paterae, egg-and-dart and acanthus mouldings, and a moulded central roundel on the ceiling. The room also has panelled window shutters and a picture rail. The cellars were not accessible for inspection.