The Arcade

The Arcade is a Grade II listed building located on Stepney Street, constructed in red brick with Bath stone dressings. The facade features a modern parapet that has replaced the original cornice. The ground floor includes shops on either side, with original details now boxed in, and a broad entry in the center under a stilted arch. This entry has a flat ceiling, a recessed ashlar panel above, and glazing within the arch. On the first floor, there are tripartite sash windows set in ashlar frames, each with carved caps and stilted flat heads. Pilasters flank the center bay, and a dentil cornice is broken forward over the pilasters and outer windows. The top floor features a central tripartite window in an ashlar frame with stilted heads and carved caps on the piers, while the outer windows are 4-light arcaded designs with moulded ashlar arched heads, keystones, and outer stone piers with carved caps, separated by three cast-iron columns.

Inside the arcade, there are attractive galleries on both sides with timber balustrades and matching bridges at each end. The shopfronts have a bracketed cornice beneath the gallery and a first-floor set-back, featuring doors and timber mullion-and-transom windows leading to offices. The cornice is supported on fretted brackets, and the roof is a simple gabled glazed structure on cast-iron rafters. Although many shopfronts have been altered, some original features remain, such as the complete shopfront at No 4, while No 5 may still have original elements hidden under later boxing. Nos 2 and 3 retain only slim column shafts, and Nos 1, 6, and 7 have all been altered. No 8 has column shafts at each corner, and Nos 9 and 20 have also been modified. Between Nos 8 and 9, there are dog-leg stairs leading to the gallery. The gallery itself has five doors on each side and mostly features 3-light mullion and transom timber windows. The north end balcony has two doors leading to toilets, while the south end includes a broad landing under a plastered arch, with two doors to the south, one to the east, and a door and an 18-pane shop window to the west.

The rear of the building is plain and stuccoed, with a gabled center.