Chaucer Bookshop

Chaucer Bookshop is a town house that has been converted into a shop and dwelling. It dates from the mid to late 16th century and was refronted around 1790. The building features a timber frame with brick cladding, showcasing a front with buff headers and a tile roof. There is a rear lateral brick stack with blue brick diapering, reflecting a Georgian style.

The structure has two storeys and a three-window range. It includes a brick plinth, a platt band over the ground floor, and a top modillioned cornice. The entrance, located at the left end, features a Doric aedicule with rusticated pilasters, a triglyph frieze in the entablature, and a pediment above a six-panel door. The segmental-headed windows have sills and keys to arches over twelve-pane sashes, although the central first-floor window is blind. The rear of the building has a gabled wing with a lower addition and a narrow gabled wing to the right. The stack features pilaster strips on the shaft, and some of the timber frame is exposed with square panels.

Historically, from 1597 to 1636, the building was the home of Julius Shaw, a friend of Shakespeare and a witness to his will. Hunt's Bank, Stratford's first bank, was established here around 1790. From 1823 to 1835, it served as a public dispensary founded by Dr. John Conolly, a philanthropist and pioneer in mental health. In the early 20th century, it was occupied by the Shakespeare Head Press.