The Shambles

The Shambles Shopping Centre/Market Hall is situated in the centre of the high street immediately south of the Town Hall and the Market Cross. The building comprises one storey built of brick and mortar in Flemish bonding, and with rendered quoining around many of the building’s edges.

The north elevation has a double entrance, central to the building, with an arched stone surround with inset window. There are a total of four windows, including two large multi-paned arched windows with stone sills and two smaller multi-paned windows with stone sills and moulded arch surrounds, one of which is a vertical sash.

The west elevation comprises of three large windows located at the ends and one centrally all have brick pillars either side that are mounted by a cornice. There are two smaller windows to the left hand side and three to the right hand side, making eight in total.

All windows are multi-pane arched with tapered brick arched lintels and brick sils. There is a single entrance on the left hand side with is in the same position as a window on the right hand side, keeping the symmetry of the building. There are also four dormer windows that act as light wells on this elevation although they are not visible from street level. A tie plate is visible on the penultimate right hand side pillar. The south elevations comprises of a large double entrance with an arched window above. There are two large multi-pane arched windows. Both the windows and the door are surrounded by stone voussoirs. There are two large decorative buttresses on either side of the door.

There is a decorative cornice running along the top of the building with a large stone centrally located bearing the inscription “ERECTED A.D. 1825, JOHN WILKINSON (E)SQ MAYOR”.

The east elevation mirrors the west elevation with the exception of having a window in place of a single entrance. The windows on this elevation are of the same style except that the central four panes on the windows open by pivoting on a central horizontal axis. There is a tie plate visible on the penultimate right hand side pillar, mirroring that on the west elevation. Much of the roof is not visible, though 45° skylights are visible internally and are four dormer windows to facing east and west respectively. This creates a W shaped roof for which there is not typology. A decorative, rendered parapet surrounds the entirety of the top of the outer walls that are of the same level.