The former Constitutional Club

This gentlemen's club was built in 1888 to designs by architect Henry A Cheers. It is constructed in red brick laid in English bond on its main elevation, with extensive stone dressings and Welsh slate roofs, which were partially stripped at the time of survey.

The building has a central entrance flanked by effectively self-contained ground floor retail units. The main entrance opens onto an axial corridor extending to a single-storey billiard hall at the rear. On the left side of the corridor are the main stair hall and a club room; to the right are two further club rooms, one formerly a bar. The first floor contains a large hall and five further club, office or meeting rooms. The attic forms a caretaker's flat.

Exterior

The main elevation faces northwest and is described by Pevsner as "picturesque mixed Tudor and Baroque". It is asymmetric, comprising nine irregular bays across two storeys with an attic. The grand central entrance features an elaborate Baroque-style stone doorcase with a door hood in the form of an open segmental pediment supported on giant consoles, flanked by pillars. The double doorway is round-arched, with the keystone and tympanum enriched with carved embellishment. Rising to either side above the door hood is a pair of seated winged beasts holding shields bearing the heraldic arms of Scarborough and the North Riding of Yorkshire. The entrance is flanked on the ground floor by 20th-century inserted shop fronts, both replacing pairs of original windows. These inserted shop fronts are declared not to be of special architectural or historic interest under section 1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. The original entrances to the ground floor retail units are also grand, though clearly secondary, with stone doorcases featuring much carved embellishment. These doorways are square-headed with semi-circular fanlights—one retaining stained glass—set above scrolled friezes.

The first floor is unified by projecting stonework at both sill and attic-storey heights, and by bands of stone set level with the window transoms and lintels. The upper lights of the windows are leaded, some containing stained glass. To the right (northwest) of the central entrance are three regular bays of cross-mullioned windows with broken pedimented heads forming part of the projecting stone attic-storey course. Above the central entrance are two bays of narrower windows divided by narrow pilasters, with two matching bays to the left (southeast) and a blind bay beyond. Here the attic storey course forms a projecting cornice with a series of carved stone panels set above, creating a frieze defined by a further stone string course. Beyond the blind bay is the southeast end bay, which takes the form of a large, projecting corner-set oriel window. This is hexagonal on plan, with the side facing the corner being slightly broadened. It is supported by a giant, four-stage cornice supporting a frieze of carved stone panels. The windows are cross-mullioned and continuous around five sides (the sixth side opening to the interior) and are topped by a continuation of the cornice and frieze from the main elevation. Above this, the attic storey rises as a turret, with cross-mullioned windows to five sides, topped by a steeply pitched, swept roof with projecting eaves. The attic floor to the right features a large, ornate shaped gable centred on the two bays to the left (southeast) of the central entrance. This includes a pair of cross-mullioned windows with carved stone lintels forming niches. To the right (northwest) is an elaborately buttressed chimney stack which has been partly truncated.

Side and rear elevations were not inspected but are believed to be utilitarian.

Interior

At the time of inspection, the interior had been partially stripped of features—including ornate doorcases, staircase balustrading, bar and other built-in furniture—and was suffering water ingress as a result of the removal of roofing slates for salvage. The spinal corridor and stair hall have a polychrome, geometric tiled floor. The stair hall features an inscribed foundation stone forming the plinth for a pair of ornate polished granite or marble columns with decorative capitals, from which spring arches supporting the stair landing above. The staircase has two quarter landings and is lit by three war memorial stained glass windows, but has lost its balustrading. The billiard hall to the rear of the ground floor has a partially exposed roof structure including decorative arched braces and pendants. The roof structure of the first floor hall is even more elaborate, with an exposed arch-braced hammerbeam roof structure incorporating braces to the lowest purlins which form depressed arches between the hammerbeams. The purlins, braces and other timber members are moulded, with spandrels infilled with carved panels and the hammerbeams embellished with pendants and bosses.