Post Office, including shop premises on corner of Bull Lane

Post Office, including shop premises on corner of Bull Lane

A large Victorian shop and warehouse complex in eclectic late Gothic and Renaissance style. The building is constructed of red-brown brick and terracotta with pale sandstone banding, and features slate roofs with tiled ridges.

The main elevation comprises a 3-storey block with 2 ground-floor shops facing the High Street. The shop to the left wraps around the corner onto Bull Lane. Continuing up Bull Lane are three 2-storey ranges, with the final section topped by a shaped gable.

The main ground-floor shop fronts are distinguished by rusticated flanking piers that terminate in stylised shaped finials with surmounting balls. These rise through a plain fascia with moulded and dentilated cornice. The post office is positioned to the right with a modern shop-front, while the shop to the left retains its original frontage. The left-hand shop features a recessed central entrance with large windows, those to the left having a canted corner returned onto Bull Lane. The glazing is supported by cast iron colonnettes with simple capitals and bases and associated brackets. Large part-glazed doors with arched top lights are fitted, with a 20th-century iron half-gate flush to the front.

The first floor is divided into three bays, each containing three grouped windows for a total of nine windows, separated by projecting flat piers. These are plain 3-part vertical sashes with a continuous sandstone lintel band. The second floor contains 6 slightly broader windows, two per bay, with plain lower and 2-pane upper sash sections. Between the floors are 6 recessed panels with carved foliate relief work in terracotta.

At the corner on the left, above the shop, stands a storied octagonal tower rising through the first and second floors and terminating in a squat octagonal spire. The eaves are feathered and moulded with a dentil course, and there are paired blind arches to each face above the second floor windows. The tower windows on both floors are plain vertical sashes, and the decorative terracotta panels continue across its faces.

The Bull Lane elevations feature simple vertical sashes of similar form with sandstone sill and lintel bands. The lowest right-hand section has an entrance to the left with two large paired windows set beneath segmental brick relieving arches, with grouped sashes above. To the left of this, a 2-bay section steps up with a stepped gable to the right-hand bay, containing three grouped windows flanked by entrances and two pairs of sashes above. Further to the left is another section stepping up again, containing 5 windows to each floor and a further entrance to the right.

The elevation terminates to the left with a 3-bay end block featuring a shaped decorative gable with ball finials and ogee and stepped elements, and flat outer pilasters carried down to first-floor level. The three bays are recessed between dividing piers flush with the gable. A central entrance with flanking windows, all with segmental heads, faces the street, together with cross-windows with plain glazing. The first floor contains similar windows, with the central one arched, and all are topped by a continuous moulded label course with fluted keystones. The gable fronts a large plain hall block to the rear. Adjoining the gable to the left is a short stepped screen wall section fronting a contemporary single-storey slated lean-to, which has a 5-panel moulded door.