45 And 47, Stonegate

A pair of early 18th-century houses, originally numbers 28 and 29 Stonegate, later renumbered 45 and 47, and now used as shops. The front of the building is orange-red brick in Flemish bond, with a rear of random bond. It has a timber cornice and brick stacks rising to a pantile roof. The building is of group value.

The 3-storey, 4-bay front features shopfronts framed by plain pilasters under a plain cornice with scroll consoles. The central entrance has two part-glazed doors with overlights, flanked by a small-pane bow window with a panelled frieze and a plate glass window. The first-floor windows are 12-pane sashes with slender glazing bars; the second-floor windows are squat 12-pane sashes, all with painted stone sills and flat arches of gauged brick with painted stone double keyblocks. A broad, painted raised band is present at the second floor, topped by a heavy moulded and modillioned eaves cornice. The rear elevation features altered windows, most retaining segmental arches, raised brick bands to the first and second floors, and to the eaves beneath a corbelled brick cornice.

Inside number 45, the cellar contains a wide, segment-arched brick fireplace with remnants of a cooking range. An altered staircase rises from the first floor to the attic; the lower flights have open strings with alternately twisted and turned balusters, a heavy ramped handrail, wreathed at the foot around a turned newel on a shaped curtail step. The upper flights have a close string, turned balusters, and square newels with attached half balusters. The first-floor landing has doors leading to the front and rear rooms. The front room is fitted with fielded panelling above a moulded and enriched dado rail and a moulded, dentilled cornice. A stone fireplace surround, carved with fielded panels and a shell keyblock, contains a hob grate, with an alcove cupboard fitted with shaped shelves to the right. The door architraves are carved with egg and flower ornament. The second floor has 3-panel doors on left-hand hinges leading to the front and back rooms. The front room has a plain painted stone fireplace with a cast-iron grate, while the rear room has a moulded fireplace with a cornice shelf and basket grate. Both rooms have moulded cornices. A section of the left return wall to number 43 is visible in the front room, including part of a timber window surround. The attic has plank and batten doors on left-hand hinges.

Inside number 47, the staircase is similar but more elaborate, and has been reset. The first-floor landing has a door with a 19th-century painted glass panel, possibly by JW Knowles.