Listed Building: ROYAL ARCADE, GLOUCESTER ROW (467599)

WEYMOUTH SY6879 ESPLANADE 873-1/21/152 (West side) No.92 Royal Arcade, Gloucester Row (terrace) GV II Arcade of shops, now amusement arcade. Dated 1896. Red brick with Portland ashlar or painted dressings, lead and patent glazing roofs. STYLE: vigorous Art Nouveau but the ground-floor display fronts to the Esplanade have been replaced. PLAN: a long narrow building with central through arcade, flanked by small separate rooms on an upper level; there are shallow front and rear blocks with flat roofs and rich frontages, with a raised central glazed roof with clerestory ventilators; rear of building is in Gloucester Mews. EXTERIOR: front is 3 storeys with 3 bays divided by brick pilasters to deep stone entablature strips. At second floor are paired 6-pane casements in striped brick and stone jambs, with dividing pilasters having Byzantinesque capitals, to a cornice, and on decorative corbels. The central lunette in 3 lights is continued through a stone apron to a pair of sashes below, the upper sash only with glazing bars, and all contained within a wide arch with alternating stone and brick voussoirs. To each side at first floor is a similar pair of sashes in flush stone surrounds. 3 late C20 shop fronts at ground floor are divided by 4 original Ionic pilasters with Jacobean entablature strips, carrying a stone moulded cornice under a blocking course, and surmounted by a plain sill band to the first floor. The parapet has a high segmental centre with kneelers, and a central feature carried through from the keystone of the main arch; this is flanked by low undulating segmental parapets, and each pilaster carries a stone ball finial. The central stone apron bears a fine incised inscription: THE/ ROYAL ARCADE/ BUILT 1896, and strapwork. The elevation to Gloucester Mews is in 2 storeys, a simplified version of the front treatment, in 3 bays with brick pilasters at first floor, and 1:2:1-light original casements in banded brick and stonework. The lofty ground floor has a wide pair of central glazed doors with central slender cast-iron column under a frieze with ROYAL ARCADE painted on. To either side are plain ashlar panels under a deep frieze, and on stall boards with paired sunk panels. Ground floor has 4 stone pilasters on deep podia, and with Jacobean capitals and entablature-strips, carrying a deep moulded stone cornice. Above the first-floor cornice is a blocking course in brickwork, with central undulating low segmental parapet flanked by flat parapets, and with stone ball finials to the pilasters. The return wall to the right is in plain brickwork, and has a series of casements at first-floor level. There are 5 brick stacks at the eaves along both sides of the building, which has flat roofing each side of the raised glazing. INTERIOR: not inspected. In matching style to the Royal Hotel (qv) and principally included for the contribution which the facade makes to the important group of listed buildings along the Esplanade. Listing NGR: SY6801579446

Record last edited

Sep 30 2009 9:45AM