Exhange Buildings

Nos 20-26 (even) and 2-6 (even) Park Street (Exchange Buildings) Market Street (East side)

English Baroque style, 3-storeys and attic with domed corner. Brown glazed brick piers to ground floor and upper floors in red brick with extensive dressings in matt grey faience, imitating stone. Slate roof and brick ridge stacks. Plain rear elevations are all in rubble stone.

Eight-bay elevation to Market Street, divided 1-6-1 and 7 bays to Park Street, divided 2-4-1 and ornate corner north west angle bay with dome.

Ground floor has channelled glazed piers between shopfronts and 2 narrower bays to Market Street with doors to upper offices. Grey faience caps with pendant labels between fascia panels, moulded cornice above. Upper floors have slightly projected flanking bays with channelled faience angle piers, moulded caps with pendant labels and fine overall moulded cornice with pulvinated frieze, broken forward over angle bays. Windows are linked vertically and are small-paned sashes in Queen Anne style. Those of plainer centre bays have shouldered architraves and cornices, those of the outer bays have pediments on brackets to first floor and cornices on brackets to second floor. Angle bay has wholly faience clad upper floors with canted 2-storey bay, main cornice carried around, broad front sashes, pedimented to first floor and with flat cornice to second floor and narrow lights to canted sides with plain cornices over.

Attic floor has big lunettes over flanking bays, faience arches, cornice, coping and side piers, red brick walling and row of eaves breaking brick dormers between, segmental-headed with faience keystones and coping. Angle dome is in 2 stages, lower canted section with one window and 2 faience piers, then octagonal drum with scrolled faience angle buttresses, small square windows and leaded bell-cast dome with wood spike finial.