Blackett Street, Emerson Chambers

Shops and offices. Circa 1903 by Simpson, Lawson and Rayne. Sandstone ashlar with
dark granite plinth and doorcases; Welsh slate roof with copper domes. Rich Art
Nouveau/Baroque style. 5 storeys and attics; 3 wide bays and canted corner bays.
Curved central section has double door between attached Jacobean Ionic columns
with exaggerated entasis , side lights and fanlight with Art Nouveau glazing
bars. Plainer Ionic cases to shop doors in corner bays; shops have slender
pilasters, with long brackets to cornice, and top flowing glazing bars; that on
right concealed by c.1970 fascia. Upper floors have shallow canted oriels at
varying heights; keystones, scrolled cornices, balustrades, strapwork and top
garlanded frieze; corners have bracketed balconies and round, corbelled-out
turrets. Ornate copper dome over left turret, 2-tiered with oriental finial;
right clock dome in similar style. High central gable, shaped and scrolled,
with 2 round-headed windows and oculus; intermediate square-headed dormers
each have 2 diagonally-placed high pyramidal roofs with swept eaves; similar
roofs to tiers of small lights in high hipped roof. 2 high, corniced ashlar
chimneys. LISTED GRADE 2*