23-25 Bridge Street

Cadw's description

Location

Set into a row of frontages opposite the junction with Pool Side.

History

Probably built in the early C19 and the building shown here on the 1834 town map. It was 2 properties by 1888, by which time the building may have been remodelled to create the present front, although the shop front and interior probably date from the last decade of the C19. In 1895 No 23 was occupied by a draper and No 25 by the Welsh Tobacco Company.

Exterior

A pair of shops with dwellings above in simple classical style, of 3½ storeys with a 4-window front. The front is roughcast with dentilled eaves below the graded slate roof, which has a central roughcast stack. Ground-floor openings were all boarded up at the time of inspection. The late C19 shop front, formerly for 2 shops, has pilasters and fascia end brackets to the cornice, shop windows with slender mahogany mullions and classical details, above a polished granite stall riser. The recessed doorways have mosaic floors with lettering (Lake and Co Ltd) and panelled ceilings. The glazed doors, set diagonally, have ‘eye’ shaped panels and segmental foliated pediments above. A further doorway is at the L end, with panelled door and traceried overlight. Windows in the middle and upper storeys have architraves, while 2-storey vertical inscription panels are set back from the ends. In the middle storey are 6 over single-pane hornless sash windows, while the upper storey has shorter mainly 9-pane sash windows, but some have glazing bars removed. Two gabled dormers have lunettes with sinuous aprons, boarded up to the L, with partly surviving small-pane glazing to the R.

The rear is roughcast and retains some sash windows, with tall narrow stair lights to the outer sides. The ground falls sharply at the rear where there is a 3-storey roughcast rear wing at basement level.

Interior

No 25 has a fine Art Nouveau staircase with pierced flat balusters and tapered newels. Display shelving also has Art Nouveau detail and turned balusters to each level, pediments over taller pilasters and a dentil cornice. A panelled dado No 23 retains a small amount of similar detail.

Reason for designation

Listed as a well-detailed late C19 pair of shops, retaining external and internal detail, and for its contribution to the distinctive late C19 commercial character of Bangor Street, Bridge Street and Eastgate Street.