Built as the premises for James Howell and Co, Drapers, the first phase of building was the twelve-bay, four-storey cinquecento palazzo-style structure facing St Mary Street constructed in 1875-9 and c.1889 to the design of W. D. Blessley. The large first-storey windows are separated by pilasters with floral designs. The second story has a series of pilasters with faces in their capitals, above which are panels bearing stylised lettering: `H? and `Co?. In the middle of the second storey is a circular clock supported by an iron bracket projecting from the front of the building. Above the second storey is a balustrade in front of the third-storey sash windows which are topped with arches filled with shell designs.

To the south-east of this elevation a second elevation was built in 1928?1930 showing influence from the North American Beaux-Arts style. The four-storey elevation has facades on St Mary Street and Wharton Street. The elevation is topped with a capped parapet supported on a dentilated main cornice with lion masks above a frieze decorated with wreaths. The second-, third-, and fourth-storey windows are recessed and separated on the St Mary face by massive Ionic columns, on the Wharton Street face by massive square pillars. The north-west and south-east corners are rounded with recessed panels near the top displaying Classical-style reliefs with male and female figures.

In the 1960s the building was extended along Wharton Street ending in a large four-story elevation with a rounded south-eastern corner in which is the entrance. During this extension, the Bethany Baptist chapel (Nprn 9274) was incorporated within the structure and many original features of the chapel are retained including the lower facade displaying a plaque to Rawlins White, a local fisherman burnt for heresy, and arches and cast-iron pillars from the chapel interior.

The store was sold to House of Fraser in 1972 and underwent refurbishment in 2009. The structure is Grade II listed.

(Sources: Cadw Listed Buildings Database; NMR MS VS01/18)

A.N. Coward, 08.06.2018