21 And 23, Commercial Road

A courthouse and police station, later used as a police station and store, was built in 1858 by C. Wainwright and R. Heard. The building is constructed of coursed squared limestone rubble with dressed stone detail, a slate roof, and ashlar stacks. It is designed in the Jacobean Revival style with a symmetrical facade. The building is two storeys and an attic, with eleven bays. It features stone mullion and transom windows with four-centred lights, some with angled labels. Wings project at right angles to the facade in the third and ninth bays, and three-storey towers flank the building in the second and tenth bays. Each tower has a flat roof and an open porch at its base, formed of two four-centred archways. There are four doorways with chamfered stone surrounds and studded plank doors, secured with elaborately scrolled cast iron hinges. Shaped end gables with copings are present on each wing, as are projecting wings. The structure was erected two years following the establishment of the Somerset County Constabulary.