Former Dixons jeweller's shop with accommodation above, 79 Senhouse Street

Former Dixons jeweller's shop with accommodation above, 79 Senhouse Street

A late nineteenth-century jeweller's shop with dwelling over, part of a terrace built around 1891.

The building is constructed of coursed blocks of rusticated red sandstone with ashlar dressings and a timber shop front.

The ground floor retains an original three-bay timber shopfront comprising a central three-sided canted shop window flanked on either side by a splayed, recessed entrance, each within an arched shop bay. Although the fabric canopy has been removed, its frame and mechanism remain. The central bay has a plinth and stall riser supporting the bay shop window, which features decorative cast-iron mullions and capitals. The window retains original panelled timber security shutters to its lower and central parts. Both recessed entrances have boarded soffits and doors with glazed fanlights. The left entrance has a four-panel timber door with a replacement timber gate to the front, while the right entrance has a glazed door and shallow, curving glass display cabinet with a removable timber cover. The concave fascia above the shopfront bears painted lettering reading "John Dixon & Son/Watchmaker & Jeweller Est 1880".

At first-floor level, a three-light canted bay window with moulded sill and lintel within an ashlar surround and cornice is fitted with a marginal light top sash over single sash panes to all three sides. This is framed by a pair of strip pilasters rising to a moulded eaves cornice, flanking a square-headed dormer window which breaks through the eaves and has a sliding sash of six over two panes. The rear elevation is rendered with a rectangular window in a stone surround to each floor; all but the ground floor have uPVC replacement frames.

The left recessed entrance opens into a plain passage with a ceramic tiled floor extending to the rear of the building. Access to 79 Senhouse Street is through the right side of the passage, which has a late nineteenth-century ornate letter box plate and a nameplate inscribed "J DIXON" and "J DIXON ENGRAVER", thought to have been moved from their original position on the main entrance.

The small ground-floor shop retains original glass-fronted mahogany display cabinets with carved Classical detailing to the top, probably bronze, now painted white, with curved ends. The cabinets are fixed and extend across two walls in an L-shaped formation. Other shelving is of later date. To the rear of the shop is a second room with fitted enclosed cupboards, a moulded cornice, and a late nineteenth-century chimney piece with cast-iron grate. There is also a single in situ gas mantle with pipework. This room was likely used as an office and workshop.

Enclosed stairs lead down to a basement from the central stair hall. The basement had domestic use during the later twentieth century and contains a mid-twentieth-century chimney piece, fitted timber cupboards, and ceramic tiled floor. An open-string stair with curtail and geometric stencilled risers, but missing its balustrade and handrail, leads to the first floor. The front room has a moulded cornice, frieze, picture rail, and a ceiling rose with an eight-pointed star design. The panelled bay window is shielded by a late twentieth-century timber frame with opaque and coloured glass doors, and a mid-twentieth-century timber and tiled chimney piece. The rear room has similar decorative scheme, though no ceiling rose, and retains a timber chimney piece fitted with an Edwardian tiled, cast-iron grate. A mahogany staircase with ornate newel posts, turned balusters, and a moulded handrail continues to the attic storey. The rear and front attic rooms are plain and retain round-arched cast-iron Victorian grates. The front attic room gives access to a flying freehold front attic room above number 81 Senhouse Street, which has an identical cast-iron fireplace. At attic level, there is a shallow arched recess in the party wall between numbers 79 and 77 Senhouse Street. Some room partitions to the attic have been inserted.

The front second-floor attic room above number 81 Senhouse Street belongs to number 79 Senhouse Street as a flying freehold.