51, Lower Bridge Street

This is a three-story town house, built around 1700 for the lawyer John Mather. It is now part of a hotel and restaurant, combined with the adjacent property at No. 49. The house is constructed of Flemish bond brick with a grey slate roof.

The front of the building has a semi-basement and a stone plinth marking the former Row level. A stone staircase leads from the north to the main entrance, and a separate staircase provides access to the basement. The front door is made of six fielded panels, with a three-pane overlight within a painted stone frame featuring a bolection architrave and a broken scroll pediment. The windows on the ground floor are recessed sashes with varying numbers of panes (16, 12, and 16 panes). The second and third floors have stone floor bands and sashes with 16, 12, and 16 panes on the second floor, and 12, 9, and 12 panes (with shorter upper sashes) on the third floor. All windows have stone sills and keyed wedge lintels. A decorative frieze and modillion cornice runs along the top of the front elevation, with a boxed timber gutter. A gabled dormer window is centrally placed on the roof. Chimneys are situated on the lateral sides. The south side features a projecting wing with projecting and flush chimneys, a window to the second floor, and a flush sash window to the third.

The rear of the house is symmetrical, with a 20th-century extension. Small closet wings are located at each corner of the rear, with narrow six-pane and four-pane sash windows on the second and third floors respectively. Brick floor bands run continuously across the rear and around the closet wings. A replaced window is in the rear gable.

An inspection in 1988 revealed an undercroft below street level, with a brick barrel-vault at the rear. The ground floor room on the north front retains a dado rail, fire surround, and cornice, while an altered rear room has remnants of a dado rail and dentil cornice. These interior features are likely from the late 18th century. The staircase has barley sugar balusters and an early 18th-century handrail. The second floor has late 18th-century architraves and cornices. The attic shows the roof purlins and construction of the roof hips.