The Arcade

The building comprises Market Chambers, incorporating 5-6 Market Street, and The Arcade, built in the Renaissance style and dating from the 18th century. It is constructed of pale brick with red brick banding and freestone dressings, topped with a slate roof.

The symmetrical front has five bays, with the 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 above a traceried lunette adorned with swagged ornament in the upper storey. An aedicule in the middle storey frames a tripartite window with a lintel sculpted with bucraniums, featuring 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. Panelled double doors lead to a radiating fanlight.

Sash windows are fitted with margin glazing and have 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 in the lower storey have been modernised, but retain the fascia with end consoles to the right of centre (Nos 5c and 6). The left side (5a-b) continues around to Church Street, with a splayed angle containing the doorway, single windows above, and a single-bay return with aired 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 features details similar to the main Market Street front but is only two storeys high. Its upper storey has four windows, and the gable has a broad round-headed window with radiating and marginal glazing bars. The 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. The front of No 6 continues around this side, incorporating a splayed angle housing the doorway, akin to the left side, followed by a single bay with attic similar to 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.

Inside The Arcade, a 7-bay roof is supported by arched-brace steel trusses on corbels, spanning 9.75 metres. The three central bays have apex ridge lights. At the north end, a proscenium arch with a pediment and classical capitals is present. The central aisle is defined by plain Tuscan iron columns and a plain entablature that demarcates the stalls.