53 and 55 Castle Street

53 and 55 Castle Street

An 18th-century house with shop, altered and extended during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The building is constructed of red brick with a gabled, tiled roof. The historic rear wing and 20th-century extensions to the rear are also in brick (apparently reclaimed in the recent additions) with modern composite tiles.

The plan comprises a principal rectangular range fronting Castle Street to the north, with projecting extensions to the rear to the south.

The principal north elevation displays a 21st-century shopfront at ground floor level. On the left, a curved pane rounds the corner to the east, with two slender glazing bars dividing three large glass panes. A simple reeded timber pilaster separates the eastern shopfront from a second shopfront on the western half of the façade. This western shopfront contains two large glass panes with a central recessed door, each corner marked by a slender glazing bar. The entrance floor is 19th-century terrazzo. The entrance door is panelled in its lower third and topped with a simple timber pediment with a glass pane above. Below both shopfronts are glazed brick panels, now overpainted. A dentilled cornice runs the full width of the façade above the shopfront signboard.

At first-floor level are three evenly spaced two-over-two 19th-century sash windows. The left and right-hand windows have straight joints in the brickwork on either side. Above each window is a flat arch of gauged bricks with a double keystone covered in stucco. At second-floor level are three further two-over-two 19th-century sash windows. A stucco band topped with a moulded cornice runs the width of the façade above these windows, incorporating stucco lintels with central keystones. Straight joints again run either side of the left and right-hand windows.

The west elevation is rendered. The roof apex carries a tall corbelled brick chimney stack. The party wall of the demolished adjoining building is still visible. The east elevation also has a corbelled brick chimney stack at the roof apex, with the cornice continuing from the front elevation. At the top of the shopfront, the dentilled cornice and signboard continue across this elevation.

To the rear, a two-storey late-20th-century extension in red brick extends back two bays. The windows—two at ground floor and two at first floor—are replicas of historic windows with gauged brick flat arches. South of this extension and set back to the west, one bay of the historic rear wing is visible. This features an entrance door at ground level and a 20th-century casement window at first-floor level with four lights. Both door and window have flat arches of angled rubbed brick headers. Extensive patching and replacement of brickwork is evident at ground floor level.

Further south and set back further west is a small gabled late-20th-century extension approximately 1.5 storeys high, containing an entrance door at ground-floor level with a flat arch of angled headers.

The rear south elevation comprises the historic rear wing to the west, heavily altered in 1989. This wing is two storeys high with a gabled roof covered with composite tiles and a brick chimney stack at the roof apex. South of this wing is a 1.5-storey late-20th-century extension with a pitched roof. To the east, terminating further to the north, is a two-storey late-20th-century extension with a gabled roof and a small entrance door at ground floor level, topped with a flat arch of angled headers.