49, 50 And 50A, Commercial Street

Shops and dwellings, dating to the early 15th century, with significant alterations in the 17th and 18th centuries, and later additions in the 19th century. The building is constructed of painted brick and timber framing, with a hipped Welsh slate roof and a brick stack with a 20th-century cap at the rear. The main block is an 18th-century brick structure parallel to the street, with two projecting rear wings. The wing to No. 49 is likely early 18th century and contemporary with the front facade, while the wing to No. 50A dates to the 15th and 17th centuries.

The exterior presents a three-story and cellar arrangement with a six-window range. The windows are mid-19th-century margin-glazed sashes in broad, beaded cases under segmental arches, with a storeyband and 2/2 sashes above. There are three 20th-century shop fronts. A side elevation facing Union Passage features an 18th-century nine-pane light with broad glazing bars in a rear wing.

The interior retains a late 18th-century winder staircase with turned balusters to the second floor. The second floor has a 19th-century corner fireplace, two 2-panel doors with L-hinges, a plank door, and a moulded ridge purlin to the rear. The first floor includes a 19th-century corner fireplace to the rear, three 2-panel doors, a late 19th-century six-panel door, 2-panelled wall cupboards, and 19th-century corner fireplaces, one tiled and painted, with panelled reveals. The cellar features a jowelled post reused as a prop.

No. 50A has an 18th-century open-well staircase with turned balusters connecting the first to the second floor. The second floor of No. 50A has a 19th-century corner fireplace and a pair of wall cupboards, while the first floor features 2- and 6-panel doors and panelled reveals, along with a late 19th-century corner fireplace. The cellar is stone-lined.

A rear wing contains remains of an early 15th-century hall of a high quality. Surviving framing details include a panelled wall with two trefoil-headed panels and plaster with remnants of painted text above, along with a brattished wall plate. The roof structure comprises three bays with arch-braced collars, stop-chamfered purlins, and three tiers of cusped windbraces. Original trusses have cusped queen struts and molded soffits to the collars. Smoke blackening on the timbers suggests its origins as an open hall. The hall has been reduced in width by approximately 1 meter and includes a later partition. A later structure with a roof from the 17th century has queen posts and wind-bracing with halved and pegged rafters at the apex. The wing has been truncated by at least one bay in the 19th century. This represents a rare, though damaged, survival of a richly decorated, high-status 15th-century hall.