Broad Gate, Including Broadgate Chambers And Attached Railings

Broad Gate is a medieval gatehouse, dating back to the 13th century, significantly altered between the 16th and 18th centuries and now used as dwellings. It forms part of the Town Wall. The construction is primarily rubble with roughcast rendering, featuring a plain tile roof, brick end stacks, and a brick stack with decorative spurs. It is two storeys high, with a ground-floor passage and associated basements, and originally comprised a five-window front. The windows are mostly 6/6 sashes, with some 18th-century sashes featuring broad glazing bars and small panes of old glass in the centre. The building has a machicolated parapet and a gable with a lead panel.

An entrance on the left return has steps and a handrail leading to an 18th-century door with fielded panels, within a moulded case and under an enriched hood supported by clustered-shaft pilasters. A recessed wing to the left features two tiers of 6/6 sashes with stucco key blocks. Iron railings run between the entrance and a drop to the roadway, rising from a stone coping on a rubble wing wall. Within the entrance passage, visible ceiling joists remain, along with a portcullis arch and blocked arrow slits at the base of drum towers. A planked door and two fixed lights are located to the right of the entrance arch.

The right return is a mix of brick and rubble, displaying three 6/6 sashes, and a 6/9 sash in a moulded case within the gable. The lower Broad Street facade has a stuccoed bay over the passage, featuring 2-light casements with glazing bars and one 6/6 sash in a moulded case above. A coped gable is evident. Flanked by stuccoed drum towers, the right tower has sandstone quoins masking blocked arrowslits, with 18th-century 2-light windows above. The left tower has stucco and brick stacks, partly obscured by 6/6 sashes in altered openings under a timber lintel, and a 6/6 sash above a plank door with a fixed light over, also under a timber lintel.

An early 19th-century two-storey wing is located to the left, constructed of rubble with a plain tile roof and a two-window range of 8/8 sashes. The entrance on the left side has a 20th-century six-panel door within an ornamented entablature on moulded pilasters. An 8/12 sash sits under a stone gable, alongside a massive rubble stack with a brick superstructure.