Description

The following shall be added:
SK 49 SW HIGH STREET
(west side)
9/61 Imperial Buildings
GV II
Shop and office building with internal shopping arcade. 1907. In the Jacobean
Revival style. Red brick with ashlar dressings. Slate roofs and 16 ornate
brick stacks. Eastern, High Street, front 3-storey, 5-bay central section,
flanked by curved tripartite bays with to the north 2 bays and to the south
1 1/2 bays. Central doorway to offices above, with flanking marble pilasters
supporting brackets and a segmental arched hood, topped by a balustrade with
finials, tympanum below inscribed 'IMPERIAL BUILDINGS AD 1907'. Either side
are shops divided by tall marble pilasters, ,some shops such as Brooks and
Brooks, and Victoria Wine retain almost complete Edwardian shopfronts. Above
both floors are articulated with pairs of Doric pilasters supporting an
entablature, and topped by a parapet. The first floor has tripartite windows
with small pediments. The top floor has tripartite windows with segment headed
moulded surrounds with keystones, and blind balustrades below. The final bay
on each end is topped by a broken curved pediment with finials and an obelisk.
The remaining fronts are 2-storey. The 5-bay, west front, has a central arcade
entrance flanked by 2 shops, with dividing marble pilasters, and then
tripartite curved corner bays, each a single shop. The 4-bay, north and south
fronts each have 2 shops, an arcade entrance and a further shop beyond. Almost
all these shops retain their Edwardian shopfronts. Above, these 3 fronts are
articulated with pairs of Doric pilasters, with between tripartite windows in
segment headed moulded surrounds with keystones. The curved corners are topped
with ornate gables, and the arcade entrances are topped by pediments, linked
together by an arcaded balustrade with ball finials. The internal arcade has
a glazed iron roof, and shopfronts topped by curved pediments, plus a central
wooden kiosk also topped with curved pediments, an open arcade and ball
finials.

Listing NGR: SK4281192808

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26552665

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)