17 AND 18, FOSSGATE

17 and 18 Fossgate is a house with a shop, built around 1890 with later alterations. The front features white-washed rendered brick and a timber shopfront, while the right side is made of orange-buff brick in English garden-wall bond. The building has a tiled roof at the front and a slate roof at the rear, with brick corbel-cornice stacks at each end.

The exterior is three stories high with a two-window front, showcasing applied timber-framing on the upper floors. The shopfront includes panelled pilasters with moulded imposts, tall reeded pedestals, a plain fascia, and a dentilled cornice, all supported by gableted consoles carved with Art Nouveau tulips. The entrance features recessed glazed and panelled double doors, flanked by half-canted plate glass windows with square-pane transom lights, set over low moulded risers. To the left, there is a slatted gate leading to a side passage.

On the first floor, the windows are four-light square bays with casements and square-pane transom lights, adorned with heavy moulded and dentilled cornices. The building has a deeply coved and moulded eaves cornice, and gabled dormers in the attic with three-light square pane windows beneath bold moulded cornices.

Inside, there is a close string staircase with turned balusters and a flat moulded handrail that rises from the ground floor to the attic. Cornices are preserved in the first-floor rooms. This building is included for its group value as an integral part of Fossgate.