25, Castle Street

This is a two-storey town house, built in 1707 and later used as an office. It is constructed of irregular bond brown brick with a grey slate hipped roof. The building has a cellar, two main storeys, and an attic.

The front façade is almost symmetrical, featuring a rendered plinth with an opening to the cellar and rusticated quoins to the central bay and corners. A set of four stone steps lead to the main door, which is an eight-panel design within an eared bolection-moulded timber frame. There are replaced twelve-pane recessed sash windows in the side bays; the west bay is rendered, and the east bay has a flat gauged-brick arch and no sill. The west corner is rounded, corbelled out and features a moulded cornice that extends around to St Mary’s Hill. Above the door, a blocked-in recessed brickwork opening exists. The upper floor east bay has a replaced twelve-pane sash, while the west bay has a similar sash and a blocked opening, each with flat gauged brick arches, projecting keystones, and no sills. A moulded cornice sits beneath a modillion-cornice eave. A bull's-eye window is set within a modillion pediment, inscribed with 'DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO : ANNO DOMINI 1707' in the tympanum. Slate-cheeked hipped dormers are recessed above each side bay. The west side is rendered, with a recessed sixteen-pane sash to the first storey and a twelve-pane sash to the second, both incorporating painted stone sills, plus a set back slate-cheeked hipped dormer. A small rear wing has a flush door with a simple overlight, a near-flush twelve-pane sash to each storey, and a brick chimney.

The cellar features a bedrock floor, brick walls, two cross-beams (one oak, chamfered), and a cross-beam supporting a corner chimney above. The upper storeys retain architraves around doorways. The east front room on the first storey has a full timber cornice, window architrave, corner breast, and a beam extending from front to back. The hall possesses HL hinges on the front door and a timber cornice along the east wall. The front west room has window architraves, corner breasts, and a chamfered beam with run-out stops. A round archway with panelled pilasters and intrados leads to the stair hall. The good open-well staircase, likely oak, features capped square newels, a closed string, two substantial barleysugar balusters per step, a straight moulded rectangular rail, and a dado with bolection-moulded fielded panels. The panelled west front room has one row of panelling beneath the dado rail and another above. A painted carved timber fire surround and panelled embrasures with benches are also present. The front east room incorporates a suspended ceiling and dry-lined walls, likely concealing original surfaces, along with a corner fireplace. The back east room also has a corner breast. The attic rooms have three oak arched braces to the collar roof, oak purlins, and a diagonally-set ridge-tree; the back room features a corner breast.