The Friars

The Friars is a detached town house occupying part of the site of a former Carmelite Friary, now converted to office use. Built around 1740 with late Georgian additions and altered in the 20th century, it is constructed of brown brick in Flemish bond on the main faces and English garden wall bond elsewhere, with grey slate roofs.

The building comprises two storeys plus an attic. A flat-roofed two-storey concrete strongroom extension occupies the north side, dating from the 20th century.

The east front displays a projecting late Georgian wing to the south with a projecting gable chimney and, at the south-east corner, a wrought-iron lantern bracket. The entrance comprises a door of two short, two long, two long and two short panels within a shouldered architrave set in a corner porch with a probably cast-iron Greek Doric column. The windows have flat gauged brick arches but no sills. A flush 12-pane sash with thick glazing bars of early type is positioned above the door, with a shuttered nearly flush tripartite 4-12-4 pane sash to the north. The second storey is marked by a plain three-course band, with four flush 12-pane sashes with thick glazing bars. A third storey floorband of two courses oversails one course below. Above this are four flush 12-pane sashes, two retaining thick glazing bars. A date plate of 1742 and a Ship insurance plate are mounted on this elevation. A late Georgian gable with a gable chimney rises above.

The south face is of late Georgian design and symmetrical, containing three windows with a slightly projecting central bay. A rendered sandstone plinth is visible. The window heads are of gauged brick without sills. The west and central bays contain flush tripartite 2-12-2 pane sashes, while the east sash is now 2-4-2 panes. A second storey band marks the division above. The west and central bays have flush horned 2-4-2 pane sashes, with the east bay containing a flush 4-12-4 pane sash. A pedimental front gable with a blocked Diocletian window rises above, with cornices to the side bays.

The west front shows a blocked first storey sash, a flush 12-pane second storey sash, and a flush gable chimney with soot door. A one-storey west wing contains a flush 12-pane sash with painted stone sill.

The north face west of the strongroom wing displays a dual flush sash of 12-8 panes, formerly a tripartite 8-12-8 pane sash. The second storey has two flush 12-pane sashes with painted stone sills. The attic contains an inserted 20th-century casement. Two gables are present, the western one being lower and of later date. The half-hipped gable over the strongrooms is rendered with a stringcourse, plain pilasters and moulded cornice. The windows to west and north have simple cambered brick heads. The brickwork suggests the house may originally have been L-shaped with the entrance opposite the east end of the south wing.

The hall contains the reset jamb of a medieval stone doorway, a fragment of the former friary, together with panelled shutters to the embrasure, a shouldered architrave to the north-east room, and a good timber archway to the stair hall. The south-east room contains five-panel doors, a panelled and shuttered embrasure, an oak cupboard with 2-2-2 panelled doors between Classical corner pillars, an altered fireplace and cornice. The central south room has a probably 19th-century stone fireplace. The south-west room has a panelled and shuttered embrasure, simple fireplace, and five-panel doors. A narrow west room, now a strongroom, contains a hipped parabolic vault of uncertain date. The former kitchen to the north has two stop-chamfered beams of 17th-century character and doors of six fielded panels.

The dogleg stair features an open string, shaped brackets, curtail step, covered steps, turned newels, three fine spiral-moulded column-on-vase balusters per step and swept oak rail. A good timber basket-archway from the landing to the east passage has a fluted keystone. The north-east room has a doorcase with bolection architrave, a raised panel above the door of two long, two short, two long fielded panels, and full entablature on consoles. It also contains panelled and shuttered embrasures to three windows, a simple fireplace and cornice. The south-east room has a panelled doorcase with a door of six margined panels, a 19th-century cast-iron grate in a marble surround, a glazed door with overlight in oak surround, and a ceiling with cornice, sloped side-panels and five roses. The room south of the stair has a corner fireplace in Adam manner, a five-panel door and cornice. The adjacent room contains a five-panel door, panelled embrasure, simple fireplace and cornice. Other rooms display features including a timber Georgian pilaster fireplace on a corner breast, a blocked corner chimney breast, panelled embrasures (some altered), five-panel doors and cornices. The stair to the third storey has square softwood newels and column-on-vase balusters.