Number 11 Street Numbers 15 And 15A Row The Old Crypt

NUMBER 11 STREET AND NUMBERS 15 AND 15A ROW, THE OLD CRYPT

An undercroft and town house, now comprising an undercroft restaurant, Row shop and office above vacant space. The building dates from around 1300 but was refronted and rebuilt from Row level upward around 1744. It is constructed of sandstone and brick with a grey slate roof.

EXTERIOR

The building rises to four storeys including street and Row levels, with two medieval structural bays. The street-level shopfront, dating to the later 19th century, features two intermediate chamfered piers of painted stone flanking shaped shop windows. Above these are four raised shields, those over the end piers inscribed "Quellyn Roberts & Co. Wine and Spirit Merchant" and the two between inscribed "The Old Crypt 1180". A pair of boarded double doors to the right have wrought-iron grilles and strap hinges.

The Row frontage displays two Tuscan columns and a timber rail carried on vase balusters. The end piers are finished with antae, and a frieze and cornice run between them, with a triglyph positioned over each column and half triglyph over each anta. A 20th-century shopfront occupies part of the Row level, and a late 20th-century entrance to No.15A stands to the right, flanked by reeded pilasters carrying a frieze and modillion cornice of early 19th-century character.

The upper storeys are constructed of brown brick in irregular Flemish bond with rusticated quoins, a band marking the fourth-storey floor, and a moulded cornice of painted stone. Each storey contains three near-flush sash windows with glazing bars, set in plain stone sills and topped with rusticated wedge lintels. A stone-coped parapet crowns the facade. A two-storey brick extension with a ridge parallel to the street stands at the west end; its western section dates to the 17th century, though the majority was rebuilt and probably extended during the 19th century.

INTERIOR

The undercroft, dating to around 1300, is a fine example of medieval vaulting. Its walls—formed of coursed rubble sandstone on the sides, rear, and parts of the front—support colonnettes that carry the chamfered ribs of a four-bay quadripartite sandstone vault of two naves, divided by three octagonal columns. The colonnettes bear roll-moulds resting on bell-shaped lower mouldings; the columns are similarly adorned with roll-moulds. Small rectangular recesses at shoulder height pierce the left wall at the second and fourth bays. The right wall contains an inserted pointed-arched opening with continuous chamfer, providing access to the undercroft of No.13. The rear wall holds a similar archway, likely original, leading to the eastern of two stone-walled rear chambers, each with a brick barrel vault probably dating to the 18th century. The main undercroft measures 13.5 by 6.2 metres with walls 1.2 metres thick; its front wall lies 2.4 metres behind the later encroachment of the shopfront onto the street.

No.15 Row occupies only the north-eastern quarter of the Row-level storey, with modern internal cladding obscuring the walls and ceiling. No.15A occupies the west and rear portions at Row level and the entire third and fourth storeys, restored and converted for office use in the early 1980s with some rearrangement of internal features.

The altered mid-18th-century open-well open-string stair to the third storey has three turned balusters of alternating form to each step, carrying a swept handrail. The stairwell features a panelled dado and plaster panels above a stringcourse at upper level, with a partly boxed-in plaster ceiling panel. Principal doors have six fielded panels; those facing the stairwell are finished with shouldered architraves. A Classical doorcase, repositioned opposite the stairhead, displays pilasters with Ionic fluting, a fanlight without glazing bars, and a frieze with triglyphs. The front room features a dado rail with alternating broad and narrow tall panels above, a modillion cornice, a repaired ceiling rose, and a brought-in marble fireplace. The west rear room in the main building retains a stone fire surround of early 18th-century character; cast-iron fireplaces, mostly 19th-century, are distributed throughout. A dogleg stair with turned balusters ascends to the fourth storey; a stone rear stair rises from the undercroft to Row level. An inglenook with a moulded oak bressumer stands against the west gable of the rear wing at Row level, suggesting that the rear wing may have been built as a separate dwelling in the 17th century.