The Arcade

The Arcade comprises a late 19th century block of shops and offices with an arcade running through to the rear, built in 1899 by Henry Herbert of Ammanford. The building is constructed of red brick with yellow and red terracotta dressings, and has a slate roof with coped gables and three red brick stacks. It is three storeys and an attic, with a five-window front. A two-storey entrance arch to the arcade is located in the second bay; elsewhere, the ground floor features shopfronts. The upper floors have paired camber-headed windows with unusual glazing tracery in the upper sash and moulded yellow brick surrounds. The attic has a red terracotta balustrade and five double-curved dormers with arched yellow brick window surrounds and ball finials. The bays on the upper floors are divided by panelled piers and have friezes over the ground floor (largely lost) and first floor bays, both pier panels and friezes being in yellow terracotta. First and second floor sill-courses project over the piers, and the second floor eaves courses are moulded red terracotta. The left end of the building features sunk panels in the walling rather than raised piers.

The ground floor includes No.9-11, which was formerly Barclays Bank and has been largely altered; No.13 retains its original moulded terracotta frieze and double-fronted shopfront; and No.15 retains a brick shop window surround and possibly the frieze, which is now concealed by a 20th-century fascia. The arcade's entrance is in red terracotta and features decorated spandrels, a large keystone, a frieze, and flanked triangular-section corbelled shafts with finials; it is wider than the bays elsewhere, eliminating the first-floor piers. Within the arch, the side walls are of yellow brick. The rear of the building is constructed of rubble stone and yellow brick.

The arcade itself is architecturally modest and features low curved lattice trusses supporting a gabled, transparent roof. Shops line each side, originally with very low boarded upper floors featuring casement windows. There were originally five shops on each side, now reduced to four on the left, three on the right, and one each side within the arch, which are now incorporated into Nos. 13 and 15 College Street. The shops have plate glass window fronts, recessed doors, bracketted fascias, and yellow brick piers between them. The shops are stepped up the slope. The end walls are stuccoed and have hipped slate roofs.

The building was originally part of a pair, with Nos. 1-7 adjoining. However, Nos. 1-7 have lost their original windows, chimneys, and dormers. Both blocks were built for Evan Evans, Chemist, who also added the Palace Theatre at the end of the Arcade in 1914, which has since been demolished.