The Arcade (consec nos)

The Arcade comprises a late 19th-century block of shops and offices with a central arcade leading to the rear, built in 1899 by Henry Herbert of Ammanford. The building is constructed of red brick with yellow and red terracotta dressings, covered by 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 archway provides access to the arcade, while elsewhere the ground floor features shopfronts. The first and second floors have paired camber-headed windows, notable for unusual glazing tracery in the upper sash and moulded yellow brick surrounds. The attic is fronted by a red terracotta balustrade, with five coped, double-curved dormers possessing arched yellow brick window surrounds and ball finials. The bays on the upper floors are divided by panelled piers, and original friezes, mostly lost, are above the ground and first floors. First and second floor sill-courses project over the piers; the second floor eaves incorporate moulded red terracotta. The left end has recessed wall panels instead of projecting piers. The ground floor shops have been altered, although No. 13 retains its original moulded terracotta frieze and a double-fronted shopfront, and No. 15 retains a brick shop window surround, possibly also the frieze, which is now obscured by a 20th-century fascia. The arcade entrance is made of red terracotta, featuring decorated spandrels, a large keystone, a frieze, and flanking triangular-section corbelled shafts with finials; it is wider than the adjacent bays, eliminating the first floor piers. The interior of the arch has yellow brick side walls. The rear of the building is constructed of rubble stone and yellow brick.

The arcade itself is relatively simple in design, with low curved lattice trusses supporting a gabled, transparent roof, and shops on either side with low, boarded upper floors containing casement windows. Originally containing five shops on each side, there are now four to the left, three to the right, and one on each side, incorporated into Nos. 13 and 15 College Street. The shops have plate glass windows, recessed doors, bracketted fascias, and yellow brick piers. The shops are built on a sloping site. The end walls are stuccoed with hipped slate roofs. The building was originally part of a pair with Nos. 1-7, but these have lost their original windows, chimneys, and dormers. Both blocks were commissioned by Evan Evans, Chemist, who also added the Palace Theatre at the end of the Arcade in 1914 (since demolished).