The Arcade

The Arcade comprises numbers 9 to 15 (odd) and 1 to 12 (consecutive), a late 19th-century block of shops and offices built in 1899, designed by Henry Herbert of Ammanford. It features an arcade that runs through to the rear. The building is constructed of red brick with yellow and red terracotta dressings, a slate roof, coped gables, and three red brick stacks. It is arranged over three storeys and an attic, with a five-window range.

The main entrance arch to the arcade is located in the second bay and is two-storeys high. Elsewhere, the ground floor contains shopfronts. The first and second floors have paired camber-headed windows, notable for their unusual glazing tracery in the upper sash and moulded yellow brick surrounds. The attic features a red terracotta balustrade and five domed dormers with arched yellow brick window surrounds and ball finials. Bays on the upper floors are divided by panelled piers, and there are friezes over the ground (largely lost) and first floor bays, all rendered in yellow terracotta. First and second-floor sill courses extend forward over the piers, while the second-floor eaves courses are moulded in red terracotta. The left-hand end distinguishes itself with sunk panels in the walling, rather than raised piers.

The ground floor has been altered in numbers 9 to 11, which formerly housed Barclays Bank. Number 13 retains its original moulded terracotta frieze and a double-fronted shopfront. Number 15 retains a brick shop window surround and possibly a hidden frieze, obscured by a 20th-century fascia. The arcade entrance is constructed of red terracotta, featuring decorated spandrels, a large keystone, a frieze, and flanking triangular-section corbelled shafts with finials. This entrance is wider than the bays elsewhere, eliminating the first-floor piers. The side walls within the arch are constructed of yellow brick. The rear of the building is faced with rubble stone and yellow brick.

The arcade itself has modest architecture, comprising a low structure with curved lattice trusses supporting a gabled transparent roof. Shops line either side, with very low boarded upper floors featuring casement windows. Originally five shops were present on each side, now reduced to four on the left, three on the right, and one on each side being incorporated into numbers 13 and 15 College Street. The arcade includes plate glass shop windows, recessed doors, bracketted fascias, and yellow brick piers. The shops are stepped up a slope. Stucco end walls are capped with hipped slate roofs.

The building and numbers 1 to 7 adjoining were originally nearly identical, but numbers 1 to 7 have lost all original windows, chimneys, and dormers. Both blocks were built for Evan Evans, Chemist, who also added the Palace Theatre at the rear of the Arcade in 1914, which has since been demolished.