54c Bute Street

The building at 54c Bute Street is a three-storey block showcasing a mix of architectural styles, including Free Classical, French Renaissance, and Dutch influences. Constructed in the 18th century, the facade is primarily red brick with a Bath stone ground floor facing and dressings, accentuated by channelled pilaster strips and gable parapets. The ground floor features thin cement stacks with cornices to the front and rear. The gently stepped facade is composed of five-bay sections repeated either side of a more prominent central bay, which is crowned by a steep, French-style roof with elaborate dormers. Each section is defined by channelled pilaster strips, and distinctive shaped gables are positioned centrally within each group of five bays. A pierced parapet flanks the left gable, retaining urn finials, while pendants (now missing) and circular attic windows are also present.

The windows are mostly four-pane sashes, with tripartite windows in the central block featuring a pedimented cornice to the first floor and flanking blind ovals decorated with draped festoons. The second floor has bracket sills set into a stone band course. A stringcourse and vermiculated voussoirs feature on the first floor, while a deep frieze band is found on the ground floor. The central windows and entrances of each five-bay section have enriched ornamentation above the cornices, including round-arched doorways with keystones, pilasters, and panelled double doors. The original ground floor windows are segmental, except in the central block where they are semicircular in shape.

Alterations have been made to the right-hand end, with the addition of a more elaborate bank frontage, extended one bay beyond the corner. This single-storey extension includes a pedimented Tuscan Doric entrance, channelled pilasters, a modillion cornice, and a high granite plinth. The left-hand side has also undergone more significant alterations, including a garage door entry piercing the extreme left end, and the removal of scrolled ornament from the windows. However, the inner five-bay section on this side has been treated in a Grecian Classical style, incorporating surrounds to a shop window, a vehicular entrance, and a central entrance adorned with an anthemion finial, egg and dart, and fretwork ornament. This section also features panelled doors with a latticed overlight.

The rear of the building has a similar style, with four- and five-window sections flanking a central projection. The right-hand end features twin gables and a central chimney. An open-plan extension, with a flat roof, sits behind the main structure and internally reveals iron Doric columns.

Inside, Dock Chambers contains open-well staircases with ironwork balustrades, bulbous newels, and scrolled handrails, amongst panelled doors and reveals and round-arched and segmental architraves. A ground floor front room in No. 4 features a plaster frieze, fluted columns to the chimneypiece, and panelled shutters.