The Arcade

The Arcade is a shopping arcade built around 1880, which includes parts of a 16th-century house and an 18th-century house and shop, with some 20th-century alterations. The front facing the market place features early and mid-18th-century colourwashed brick with stucco dressings, while the roof is not visible. The building has a side wall stack and rusticated quoins, with first and second floor bands that connect to the window keystones, topped by a coped parapet. It stands three storeys high and has a three-window range of plain sash windows. The second floor features a central sash window flanked by two blank spaces. On the ground floor, there is an arcade opening to the left with an inscribed lintel, and to the right, a restored late 18th-century canted wooden bay window with three transomed lights. The arcade itself has a series of continuous single and double wooden shopfronts, some of which have been restored, featuring reeded pilasters and scroll brackets supporting the cornices. The roof of the arcade is fully glazed and supported by traceried cast iron trusses. Shops 14 and 15 at the northeast end include a 16th-century truss and a close studded wall.