Market Chambers

Market Chambers, incorporating 5-6 Market Street and The Arcade, is a building of Renaissance style, dating from the 18th century. It is three storeys high with an attic. The building is constructed of pale brick with red brick banding and freestone dressings, including the frontispiece, sill bands, cornices, and slate roof. The symmetrical five-bay front has end and central bays topped by pedimented attic storeys; the outer bays feature oval-shaped windows, and the central bay has acroteria, urns, and a pair of lintelled windows. The central frontispiece projects forward and is composed of a moulded segmental pediment over a traceried lunette with swagged ornament in the upper storey. An aedicule in the middle storey frames a tripartite window with a buckranium-sculptured lintel, flanked by paired and cabled pilasters. Below the sill is a facial mask with scrolled enrichment. The lower storey has a dentil cornice over a round-headed entrance with tapered pilasters, leading to panelled double doors beneath a radiating fanlight.

The sash windows have margin glazing and overlights. The upper storey windows are round-headed, while those in the middle storey are square-headed, with triple windows in the bays offset from the centre, and double windows in the outer bays. The shop fronts on the lower storey have been modernised, but retain their fascia with end consoles to the right of centre (at Nos 5c and 6). The left side (5a-b) continues around to Church Street, with a splayed angle housing a doorway and single windows above. A single-bay return features paired windows in the upper storeys and a pedimented attic similar to the front. Further to the left is the former hall, now The Arcade, which has details similar to the main Market Street front, but is only two storeys high. Its upper storey has four windows, and the gable contains a broad round-headed window with radiating and marginal glazing bars. The Arcade’s lower storey retains its fascia, with end consoles (altered on the right), and a pedimented doorway to the left of centre, with a modern entrance to its right.

The opposite elevation faces a passage and the Market Taven Hotel to the north. The front of No 6 continues around this side, with a splayed angle incorporating a doorway, similar to the left side. Beyond this is a single bay with an attic, mirroring the Church Street elevation. The Arcade beyond this has a round-headed doorway, added after it ceased use as a town hall, and a triple window in the upper storey.

The main entrance from Market Street leads to a hall tiled up to head height, featuring a classical frieze and a decorative tile floor. A coffered lintel, supported by pairs of brackets, leads into a stair hall with a full-height open-well stair in short flights, incorporating turned newels and T-shaped turned balusters.