Falcon Hotel Annexe Jt Backus Murray

The Falcon Hotel Annexe, which includes Nos 5 (Murray) and 7 (J T Backus), is a house and cottage that is now part of a hotel and incorporates shops. It dates from the late 16th century to early 17th century, with an 18th-century street front that was heightened in the 19th century. The building is arranged in a block facing the street, with a wing and cottage at the rear. The street-facing block is constructed of ironstone ashlar with some paler stone dressings and features a Welsh slate roof, coped gables, and stone end stacks. It stands three storeys tall, with the ground floor featuring two 20th-century shop fronts. The first floor has five 6/6 sash windows set within raised architraves that include keystones, along with a raised band above. The second floor has three 3/6 sash windows in similar architraves made of ironstone.

The rear wing is built of coursed rubble and has a 20th-century concrete tile roof, coped gables, and a stone end stack with a brick shaft. This wing is two storeys high and features ovolo-moulded stone mullioned windows. To the right, there is a blocked 4-light window with a cornice above, a doorway, and a small 20th-century addition on the ground floor, along with a 2-light and a 3-light window above. The cottage to the north is also made of coursed rubble and has a Welsh slate roof, coped gable, and a stone stack with a brick shaft. It is one and a half storeys tall, with a central 4-centred arched doorway, a 2-light ovolo-moulded stone mullioned window to the left, and a similar 3-light window to the right, next to a projecting cupboard with a Collyweston stone slate roof. There are two 2-light gabled dormers.

Inside, the first-floor room that spans the full width of the street front (likely originally two rooms) features late 16th-century to early 17th-century square panelling, some of which has been reset, along with a decorative scroll-work frieze. The west end of this room has a 4-centred arched stone fireplace, while the east end has a similar fireplace with a cornice that breaks forward in three places. The first-floor room in the rear wing also includes a 4-centred arched stone fireplace. The ground floor room of the rear wing has similar panelling to the first-floor front room, but it also features a fluted pilaster and a massive fireplace with a moulded wooden bressummer and stone jambs.