Howells Department Store

The Howells Department Store comprises several blocks, reflecting its evolution through the 19th and 20th centuries.

A north block of twelve windows, four storeys high, is built in a Renaissance style. It features a dentil cornice, a relief frieze, and a parapet adorned with lion head panels. The third-floor windows have cornices and shallow balconies, while the second-floor windows have shell hoods. A balustrade runs along the full width of the building. The first floor has large tripartite windows supported by polygonal pillars with foliage capitals, a frieze with key decoration, and slender pilasters with foliage panels flanking large shop windows that have art deco upper lights on the ground floor.

The S block showcases a classical style, with a tall, three-bay, four-storey facade to St Mary Street. It has a parapet with cappings, a dentilled main cornice with lion masks, and wreaths to the frieze. Giant fluted Ionic columns extend through all storeys, with painted tripartite infill glazing panels. A triglyph frieze sits over the second floor, and lattice work panelling is above the first floor. Plain surrounds feature the shop fronts with original bronze recessed glazing, and classical detailing includes antifixa, fluted friezes, and paterae. The recessed centre doors are within a ramped surround. Recessed rounded angles to the left and right are distinguished by exceptional low relief figurative panels at the second-floor level, and curving classical panels below the triglyph friezes. A similar three-bay return elevation to Wharton Street includes anthemion bands on giant square piers. A plain Doric return to the left hand is partly masked by a modern bridge and contemporary link corridor with latticework cladding.

The Wharton Street frontage continues in a simplified classical idiom. A 1960s corner block at Trinity Street is followed by a three-bay block, three storeys plus an attic, in a Dutch Renaissance style, constructed in red brick with bathstone dressings. To the north, a three-storey Classical block is built from Portland stone, with a giant order of Doric pilasters on the first and second floors. Further north, a ten-bay block in yellow brick and bathstone bears the dates 1878 and 1889.

The Beaux Arts block features coffered ceilings to the open, pilastered retail floors, and the rear lift shaft has a surrounding staircase. A 1960s extension incorporated the Bethany Baptist Chapel, with stone front and cast iron columns from the chapel remaining visible within the shop.