19 Steep Hill

This is an 18th-century house, with earlier origins, and a later shopfront, incorporating one bay of the ground floor of the adjacent building at 20 Steep Hill.

The house is constructed of red brick with clay pantile roofs. It is single-depth, with two bays facing onto Steep Hill and a further bay annexed from 20 Steep Hill to the north, resulting in a ground floor of three bays. The first floor has a flying freehold arrangement affecting the neighbouring building at 20 Steep Hill. A late-19th-century lean-to extension runs across the rear (west) of the property.

The two-bay building is of two storeys and attic. A rendered plinth is visible on the left, accommodating the steeply falling ground level. The ground floor has a six-over-six sash window in a segmental-headed opening to the left, with a part-glazed door and rectangular overlight to its right. To the far north, a timber shopfront has pilasters, a dentil cornice, a late-20th-century door with overlight, and a single window, representing the annexed ground-floor bay of 20 Steep Hill. The first-floor windows are timber casements of three lights, set in segmental arched openings. A central gabled dormer with decorative bargeboards is present in the attic. The south gable end is rendered.

The ground floor interior now features a through-passage created by a modern partition, with a short flight of steps at the rear leading to the lean-to extension. The former partition separating 19 Steep Hill and 20 Steep Hill was removed to allow access to the annexed portion of 20 Steep Hill, which retains a blocked stair window indicating the original location of the stair. A winder stair is set into the south-western corner of 19 Steep Hill, with another blocked stair window nearby. A small fireplace is set flush against the rear wall, its flue now contained within the lean-to extension’s chimney stack. The first floor contains a single room, with another small fireplace at the rear.