Meandros House

Meandros House is a three-storey building dating from the 18th century, displaying a varied design incorporating Free Classical, French Renaissance, and Dutch influences. The facade is primarily red brick with a Bath stone ground floor facing and dressings, incorporating channelled pilaster strips and gable parapets. The ground floor features thin cement stacks with cornices to both the front and rear. The gently stepped facade is composed of repeating sections of five bays, with an advanced central bay crowned by a steep, French-style roof and elaborate dormer. Channelled pilaster strips define each section, while shaped gables are centrally positioned within each group of five bays. A pierced parapet to the left retains urn finials, as well as pendants (finials now missing) and circular attic windows.

Most windows are four-pane sashes, with tripartite windows in the central block featuring a pedimented cornice to the first floor, flanking blind ovals with draped festoons, and overall sash glazing. The second floor has bracket sills set into a stone band course, with a stringcourse and vermiculated voussoirs to the first floor, and a deep frieze band to the ground floor. Enriched ornament sits above the cornices of the central window and entrance of each five-bay section, and these feature round-arched doorways with keystones, pilasters, and panelled double doors. Original ground floor windows are segmental, except in the central block, where they are semicircular.

Alterations to the right-hand end include the addition of a bank frontage extended one bay beyond the corner, in a single-storey section with a pedimented Tuscan Doric entrance, channelled pilasters, a modillion cornice, and a high granite plinth. The left-hand half has been more significantly altered with a garage door entry piercing the extreme left end, where scrolled ornament to the windows has been removed. However, the inner five-bay section on this side has been treated with Grecian Classical detailing, including surrounds to a large shop window, a vehicular entrance, and a central entrance with an anthemion finial, egg and dart, and fretwork ornament, as well as panelled doors with a latticed overlight. The rear elevation features a simpler design with four and five-window sections flanking a central projection. A twin-gabled right-hand end incorporates a central chimney.

Internally, Dock Chambers has open-well staircases with ironwork balustrades, bulbous newels, and scrolled handrails. Panelled doors and reveals are accompanied by round-arched and segmental architraves. A ground floor front room in No. 4 incorporates a plaster frieze and fluted columns to the chimney piece, and panelled shutters. An open-plan extension behind the main building is topped with a flat roof and internally features iron Doric columns.