1&2 Church Street

1 and 2 Church Street were originally built around 1860 as the stable range for the Royal Oak Hotel, facing the hotel itself. In the 1930s, the building was converted into shops, now housing three units instead of the originally intended six.

The exterior shows the original construction at the north gable end and the rear, featuring red brick with blue brick dressings and a slate roof. The Church Street frontage is rendered and is single-storeyed, consisting of ten regular bays defined by pilasters with rosettes on the capitals that support a plain cornice band. The three entrance bays are enhanced with rosette decoration in the moulded panel above the doorways. The flanking windows are set in arcaded bays, featuring blind painted fanlights that radiate from low relief acanthus decoration and stressed keys. The original design, which included splayed side doorways recessed in the main entrances, is still evident in Nos 4 and 5-6.

This building is an excellently detailed early 20th-century commercial development that maintains a high degree of integrity in the strong rhythm of its original design. It is part of a group with the Royal Oak Hotel and other buildings on Church Street.