5 Dock Chambers (Emlyn House)

This is a three-storey block displaying a varied design, incorporating Free Classical, French Renaissance, and Dutch architectural influences. It dates to an unspecified period, and is located within a dockside setting.

The building's facade is gently stepped and composed of sections of five bays repeated either side of a more prominent central bay. It is constructed of red brick with a Bath stone facing to the ground floor, incorporating channelled pilaster strips and gable parapets. The ground floor is finished with thin cement stacks and cornices to the front and rear. The central bay is crowned by a steep, French-style roof with an elaborate dormer. Shaping gables define each group of five bays, flanked by a pierced parapet; the left-hand side retains urn finials, and there are circular attic windows where pendants are missing. The windows are primarily original four-pane sashes; the central block has tripartite windows with a pedimented cornice to the first floor and blind oval panels with draped festoons. The second floor has bracketed sills set into a stone band course. A stringcourse and vermiculated voussoirs feature on the first floor, and there’s 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, featuring round-arched doorways with keystones, pilasters, and panelled double doors. The original ground floor windows are segmental, except those in the central block, which are semicircular.

Alterations have been made to both ends of the building. To the right-hand end, a grander bank frontage has been added, extending one bay beyond the corner with a single-storey design and a pedimented Tuscan Doric entrance, featuring channelled pilasters, a modillion cornice, and a high granite plinth. The left-hand side has seen more significant alterations, including a garage door entry and the removal of scrolled ornament from the windows. However, the inner five-bay section on this side has been given a Grecian Classical treatment, including decorative surrounds to a shop window, a vehicular entrance, and the central entrance, which features an anthemion finial, egg and dart, and fretwork ornament, along with panelled doors and a latticed overlight. The rear elevation displays a similar but simpler design, with four and five-window sections flanking a central projection. A twin-gabled right-hand end is marked by a central chimney.

Internally, Dock Chambers features open-well staircases with ironwork balustrades, bulbous newels, and scrolled handrails. Panelled doors and reveals are accented with round-arched and segmental architraves. A ground floor front room in No. 4 has a plaster frieze and fluted columns to the chimneypiece, along with panelled shutters. An open-plan extension to the rear is supported by iron Doric columns, and has a flat roof.