37 And 39, High Street

37 and 39 High Street, Bromyard

A multiphase building of the 18th and 19th centuries with an earlier core, now divided into two properties with shops at ground level and domestic accommodation above.

The street-facing elevation is constructed in brick laid in Flemish bond, while the rear is built of coursed rubble stone. Remnants of an earlier two-storey timber-framed building survive within the structure. Brick chimney stacks are positioned at either side.

The building is oriented north-west to south-east, parallel with the High Street. The first phase comprises a one-room deep, three-storey structure. This was subsequently extended to the rear with a single storey range, which was later heightened to form a two-storey section.

The principal elevation is symmetrical at first and second-floor levels. Two hornless-sash windows appear on each storey; the frame boxes are flush with the brickwork and have projecting cills with flat arches of rubbed brick. First-floor windows are ten over ten, while second-floor windows are five over five. Two shop fronts occupy the ground floor. The left-hand shop front is wider, with its doorway positioned on the building's centre line, suggesting the ground floor may originally have had a symmetrical arrangement with a central entrance. The left-hand 19th-century shop front is an elaborate, symmetrical composition featuring a doorway on either side of a six-light central glazed section. Panelled pilasters divide the sections, with those at the edges supporting double consoles surmounted by pediments. A plain fascia sits between the consoles. Both doors have plain glazed rectangular fanlights and panelled soffits; the left door is panelled and half-glazed, while the right door has matching panelling but is solid. The right-hand shop front is simpler in design, with a large glazed panel, a door with rectangular fanlight, and a plain fascia. The rear elevation has been subject to various alterations but retains some 19th-century casement windows.

The three-storey, one-room phase contains a king-post roof structure of 18th-century date, with some 19th-century modifications that created a hipped north-west end. The roof incorporates reused timbers. The rear range shows evidence of having been heightened from one to two storeys; this section's roof also includes reused, early material. Within a cupboard on the north-west corner of number 39 is a large flared chamfered jowl post at first-floor level. This would have supported a tie beam of an earlier two-storey structure; its size and form suggest it may date to the 16th century. Number 39 contains several historic features, including 18th-century doors and a 17th-century cupboard.

Bromyard is a small market town first recorded around 840. The High Street, on which numbers 37-39 stand, was known as Novus Vicus in the late 13th century and recorded as Newe Streate in 1575. The street appears to have been fully built up by the early 17th century, although some plots have been redeveloped since then. The building is designated at Grade II as a well-preserved example of an 18th-century urban building with a much earlier core, for its elaborate and embellished classically-styled Victorian shop front, for its substantially intact 18th-century facade with later shop front, and for its group value with immediate neighbours and other listed buildings in the High Street.