Gatehouse To Merchant Adventurers Hall

The gatehouse to Merchant Adventurers' Hall, now functioning as shops, dates from the mid-17th century. It features a doorcase and Coat of Arms added in 1854 and was rebuilt and extended at the rear in 1962. The structure is made of orange-pink brick in stretcher bond with a stone doorway and moulded stone dressings, while the rear is constructed of buff brick in irregular bond. It has a pantile roof with brick stacks.

The exterior consists of a two-storey, three-bay front, with the central bay rising to an attic in a shaped gable. The central passage entry is framed by a moulded four-centred arch within a square-headed surround, topped with a moulded cornice hood. The spandrels are carved with rosettes in foliage, and the frieze features the words 'MERCHANTS HALL' carved in low relief. Above the door, there is a panel in a moulded surround displaying a painted high-relief carving of the Arms of the Merchant Adventurers of England. The flanking shopfronts have Gothick-glazed doors and small-pane windows set in frames of sunk-panel pilasters with dentil cornices. The first floor and attic windows are three-light mullion and transom casements with square lattice glazing. A full-width moulded string runs above the first-floor windows, and there is moulded coping to the eaves that rises over the gable, with fluted inverted bell rainwater heads at each end.

The rear of the building has two storeys and five bays, with the pedimented centre bay breaking forward and the end bays projecting. The central passage opening features a round arch of two orders, with the inner order having imposts. There is a panelled door in the left end bay. Both floors of the central bays have cross windows with square lattice glazing, with segmental brick arches on the ground floor and flat arches of orange brick on the first floor. The right end bay has a slit window on the ground floor, and both end bays have glazed oeil-de-boeuf windows on the first floor. A three-course raised brick band marks the first floor, and there is a moulded timber cornice to the pediment beneath a plain coped parapet. The interior has not been inspected.