La Chop

The building comprises Market Chambers, incorporating 5-6 Market Street, and The Arcade, constructed in the Renaissance style during the 18th century. It is three storeys in height with an attic. The exterior is pale brick with red brick banding and freestone dressings, including the frontispiece, sill bands, cornices, and slate roof. The symmetrical five-bay front features end and central bays topped by pedimented attic storeys; the outer bays have oval-shaped windows, and the central bay has acroteria, urns, and a pair of lintelled windows. The central frontispiece projects forward and incorporates a moulded segmental pediment over 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 bucranium motifs and features 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 are beneath a radiating fanlight.

Sash windows have margin glazing and overlights. Upper-storey windows are round-headed, and middle-storey windows 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) extends to Church Street, with a splayed angle containing a doorway and single windows above, and features a single-bay return with paired windows in the upper storeys and a pedimented attic similar to that on the front. Further to the left is the former hall, now The Arcade, which is two storeys in height and incorporates details similar to the main Market Street front. Its upper storey has four windows, and the gable features a broad round-headed window with radiating and marginal glazing bars. The lower storey of The Arcade retains its fascia with end consoles (altered on the right) and a pedimented doorway to the left of centre with clasped consoles, alongside a modern entrance to its right.

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