9 And 11, Castlegate

A house, now offices, flats, and a cafe, dating back to 1766, with possible origins in the early 18th century. It was later subdivided around 1795, with the addition of a staircase wing, and a rear extension was built around 1840, followed by further alterations in the 20th century. Originally built for George Ewbank, a chemist.

The front of the building is of orange-brown brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with a stone doorcase, moulded first-floor cornice, and a timber console cornice beneath a low brick parapet with stone coping. A slate roof is topped with brick stacks. The rear extension is of brick in both Flemish and stretcher bonds, with a moulded timber eaves cornice and a hipped slate roof, also with a brick stack.

The building has a three-storey, four-window front. The central entrance has a six-panel door beneath a radial fanlight, set within a round-arched architrave with a plain doorcase and an open pediment hood supported by grooved consoles with acanthus pendants. To the left, the ground floor has been altered and incorporates a wide tripartite window with small-pane glazing and 20th-century panelled double doors. Above this is a bold moulded cornice. To the right is a 12-pane sash with a painted stone sill and a cambered arch, alongside an end window converted into a recessed glazed door, approached by steps. The first-floor windows are 12-pane sashes of varying ages, with painted sills that continue as a sill band. Two windows to the right have cambered arches, while those to the left have segmental brick arches. The second floor has two 12-pane sashes with cambered arches to the right, and a squat six-pane sash with a segmental arch to the left; all have painted stone sills. The rear of number 9 has a radial-glazed staircase window between 12-pane sashes with cambered arches. There is a brick dentil eaves course beneath a low parapet incorporating a vestigial gable above the junction with the rear wing. The rear wing’s return features a radial-glazed staircase window and a timber eaves cornice.

Inside number 9, there is an open-string staircase with slender turned balusters, shaped tread ends, a serpentine moulded handrail, and a wreathed handrail around a turned newel on a shaped curtail step. A rear ground-floor room possesses a heavy moulded cornice. Number 11 features a staircase with cantilevered stone treads, cast-iron stick balusters, and a moulded, ramped-up handrail, wreathed around a turned column newel on a shaped curtail step. The front ground-floor room has heavy moulded spine and transverse beams, enriched with dentils, and a moulded dentilled cornice. First-floor front and rear rooms, and the front room on the second floor, have fireplaces with bolection moulded surrounds and moulded, dentilled cornice shelves. An attic door, with three panels, is located at the head of the stairs to the second floor.