Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Office

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Office is a town house that now serves as a shop and office. It dates from the late 15th century and features a late 18th-century brick facade, with a rear wing added around 1900. The building is constructed of brick and timber-frame on a rubble plinth, topped with tile roofs and a brick end stack. It has an L-shaped plan and stands two storeys tall with a three-window range.

The exterior includes two brick platt bands and a moulded brick cornice. To the right of the centre, there is a segmental-headed entrance with a plank door, flanked by two canted bay windows with hipped roofs and 1:3:1-light windows. The first floor features segmental-headed windows with cambered arches above square-headed three-light casements, all fitted with leaded glazing. The left gable is coped, and the left return has an entrance and a window. The right return displays exposed square framing with brick infill and a braced tie beam to the collar truss.

At the rear, there are two windows above a 20th-century square porch, located to the right of the large 1900 wing. The left return, which faces the Birthplace, has a timber-framed first floor, a gabled full-height bay window, and windows with leaded glazing. The right return features a jettied upper floor and an entrance with a well-crafted battened door, along with a parallel range that has a half-hipped roof.

Inside, the first floor retains original roof trusses with curved braces to cambered tie beams and collars. Two of the trusses are recessed from the front wall, with one showing a mortice to the soffit flanked by stopped chamfers. The truss to the right shows signs of infill, suggesting a layout that once included two bays and a cross-wing of a recessed bay hall, a common plan form in Stratford during Shakespeare's time. At that time, the house was occupied by William Hornby, a smith.