6 & 8 St Martins and 17 New Street

A range of town houses dating to the second half of the 18th century, later extended and subdivided, and in 2019 comprehensively remodelled internally.

The buildings are constructed of red brick with stucco dressings. The hipped roof has slate covering and incorporates tall brick chimneys, one with three circular shafts.

The range takes a linear form with advanced sections at both ends, the western end more pronounced as it forms the return elevation of number 17 New Street. The building presents a near-symmetrical continuous range of three storeys and eleven bays.

The advanced east end section is of markedly different eclectic architectural style, dating to the second half of the 19th century. It is one and a half bays in length, with the half bay set back at first and second floor level to the frontage line of the longer ten-bay section to the west. It stands beneath a steeply-pitched Dutch gable, flanked by ball finials which form the terminal elements of shallow, full-height pilasters framing the margins of the gabled frontage. The entrance doorway on the left side has a seven-panel door set below a segmental-arched overlight with glazing bars extending from a central lozenge. To the right are two tall window openings with sash frames, separated by shallow brick pilasters. The windows have shallow segmental arched heads and moulded brick aprons. Above, set on a dentilled brick band, is a five-light canted and transomed oriel window with small-paned lights above the transoms. Above this sits a string course and then a wide three-light window below a basket-arch head and hood mould with decorative stops. The half bay to the right has a ground-floor opening and sash frame matching those to the left, with the set-back section above fronted by a short parapet. The two upper floors have narrow versions of the window openings to the main range.

To the right, the remaining ten bays feature pedimented doorways at bays four and eight, each with a lugged architrave surround and a four-panel door; the doorway to bay eight has a shallow rectangular overlight. Window openings to all floors sit beneath brick segmental arches with stucco keystones. Ground and first-floor windows have six-over-six pane sash frames whilst the shallower upper floor windows have three-over-three pane frames with inward pivoting lower sections. This window pattern extends into the north and east elevations of the advanced west end bay. The return elevation on New Street has a single window opening to the ground floor together with a blocked opening, four windows to the first floor and a single upper floor window, all plainer versions of the main frontage windows. There is a wide central doorcase set below a deep cornice, with a half-glazed door set between narrow sidelights flanked by slender timber columns with Egyptian-style capitals.

The rear elevation is of far more varied architectural character, with extensions of different forms added at different periods, including two at the centre of the range with slightly curved frontages which incorporate wide window openings presumably designed to give views over now-vanished rear gardens.

The interior of the buildings has been heavily altered, firstly by 19th and 20th century subdivision, and in 2019 by comprehensive internal remodelling to create an inter-connected interior extending the length of the building range. The original spatial subdivisions of the town houses have been radically altered as rooms have been subdivided and corridors created to achieve permeability. In rooms of varied character and size, original fireplaces have been retained, together with 19th-century staircases, areas of decorative plasterwork and 19th-century panelling and joinery. With the exception of the extensive cellars, the interior is now predominantly 21st-century in character and appearance. At the time of inspection in January 2019, the remodelling was underway, and thus the final appearance and content of the interiors could not be accurately recorded.