63 Vale Street

This is a large, three-storey civic building constructed in the corporate Renaissance style, dating from the 18th century. It is built of brick with terracotta and yellow sandstone dressings, and has a hipped slate roof with a tiled ridge and tall end chimneys featuring decorative, moulded cornicing. The building is symmetrical with a three-bay main section, and a narrower bay to the left providing a secondary entrance.

The main central entrance is accessed by three segmental steps leading to a recessed doorway with splayed sides and a triple-arched head. The arches contain blind arched niches and blind geometric spandrel decoration, culminating in a carved pendant keystone. Modern, partially glazed outer doors with a leaded tympanum lead to further partially glazed inner doors. Flanking the entrance are narrow colonettes with moulded shaft rings which increase in size from the springing point of the entrance arch and extend upwards to finials. These colonettes are set against two moulded stringcourses that run across the entire facade.

The ground and first-floor bays to either side are large, storeyed and canted, with three-light wooden mullioned and transomed windows to the front, and single-light windows on the sides. Decorative leadwork is present in the upper lights, while the lower lights are plain. Above the main entrance is a two-part, six-light window. The storeyed bays have flat roofs terminating in wavy parapets with moulded sandstone copings and ball finials. A heavy, moulded stringcourse runs beneath these and is returned across the facade.

The second floor features two large shaped gables on either side of a central, similarly sized Flemish gable. The central gable is topped with a moulded sandstone pediment, while the flanking gables have ball finials. A canted oriel, with a slated roof and moulded underside, sits centrally above the second floor, flanked by plain, three-light mullioned and transomed windows. The left-hand, narrow bay is two storeys high and is slightly recessed, although the banding and string course decoration of the main facade extends onto it. This bay contains a modern entrance door with a sandstone lintel and a tall arched window with a plain sash to the first floor. The interior of the building was not inspected during the survey.