Douglas House

Douglas House, originally an inn dating to the mid-18th century, was later converted into two flats and a public house, and is now a shop with a flat above. The building is constructed of irregular courses of squared stone with ashlar dressings, and has a roof of stone slates with stone gable copings. Salvaged materials of various dates are incorporated throughout.

The exterior presents a three-storey, four-window front. A re-used six-panel door with a radiating glazed overlight is set within a tooled stone surround in the second bay. A Regency-style shop front, relocated from elsewhere, features an entablature on slender pilasters, framing six-pane windows and a recessed door. A later 19th-century shop front to the right has slender panelled pilasters and elliptical heads over a half-glazed door and flanking two-light windows, with a full-width entablature. Upper floor windows are mostly renewed sixteen-pane sashes, with tooled flat stone lintels and projecting stone sills; a two-light casement window is at the top left. The second-floor windows are almost square. Low-pitched roof with end chimneys. The rear exhibits a small, inserted two-light window with stone surrounds reminiscent of the 16th century, and Gothic-style glazing bars to a stair window between the first and second floors.

The interior features an inserted ground floor ceiling on the right side, while spine beams on the left have been plastered over and given an added cornice. The staircase has winders on the first flight, dogleg upper flights, a re-set stick baluster handrail, and turned newels. The first floor has window shutters, an 18th-century chimneypiece with a bolection frieze, dentilled cornice, and Delft tiles. The second floor has architraves to the windows, and a three-panel door that was re-sited from the attic of the right-hand portion of the building. The roof has halved pegged trusses with two levels of purlins.

Historical records indicate the building operated as an inn from 1697, with a blacksmith's workshop at the rear and a vehicle entrance in the right section of the front. It continued as a public house until around 1920, with residential accommodation above. The shop front on the left-hand side of the facade was salvaged from a shop in Sunderland, while the adjacent door and overlight originated from Haggerston, Northumberland. The rear yard contains a gazebo constructed from salvaged materials, including small stone lancet slits.