Sweetings, London

Grade II listing (as part of Albert Building):= 1871 by F J Ward; occupying one side of a triangular island site, the main and return elevations being continuous around the rounded corners; 4 storeys, painted stone Italian gothic facade consisting of superimposed arcades in an uninterrupted series of identical bays at each storey, the repetitive pattern varied only by a 5 storey centre section on the main Queen Victoria Street front. 20 bays on this frontage; ground floor shops each of 2 bays width between piers with foliated caps; moulded lintols; enriched 1st floor cill band above which the 1st floor arcade has attached columns with acanthus caps carrying stilted segmental arches, each arched opening of 2 bays width over recessed pairs of round headed windows with attached colonettes; narrower (single bay) arcade to rounded corners at this level. At 2nd floor an arcade of round headed windows with colonettes, pointed arched drip moulds, carved labels and enriched spandrels. At 3rd floor, squat piers with carved caps and windows with moulded segmental stilted arched heads. Bold corbel table at 2nd floor and enriched band at 3rd floor cill level, the entire elevation crowned by a cornice composed of these 2 elements combined, surmounted by a pierced parapet with widely spaced round headed lucarnes. The cornice is interrupted by the 8 bay quasi-attic centre, its place being taken by corbelled balconettes to the round headed windows which are deeply recessed in an arcade of pointed arches. The raised centre is crowned by a cornice nearly identical to that over the main facade.