3-5 Priory Row

3-5 Priory Row, a building of 1414-1415, originally associated with Coventry Priory, restored and extended around 1855.

MATERIALS: the building is primarily a timber frame with plaster infill panels. The ground floor and areas to the rear are of brick, all under a tile roof.

PLAN: the main range runs east to west along Priory Row, with projections to the rear.

EXTERIOR: the building is of four structural bays. The ground floor, the current appearance of which dates from 1855, is of brick with three doors accessing the individual properties and paired windows between with decorative tracery. All windows on this front elevation have diamond paned glass. The upper floors are jettied, and have close-studded timber framing with some braces to three of the four bays. At the eastern end is a door under a lean-to roof which gave access to the stair to the rear range.

The northern gable end of the front range is exposed with large panel framing. The 1855 rear wing is supported on timber posts and has a long window at first-floor level lighting the corridor and room within. Two small gables in the roof of this room have decorative bargeboards. The tall, diamond pattern chimneys rise to the rear.

In the rear courtyard, the timber-framed central projection with large square panels rises to a gable with a small window at its apex. To both sides and in front of this there are later brick extensions.

INTERIOR: the building has been combined to form one premises but retain much of their separate spaces, with three access doors surviving at ground floor level. There is much exposed timber framing throughout; this appears entirely undecorated, with no chamfering or stops to the timbers. The corner posts of each bay are jowled at top and bottom. The timbers appear mostly to be in-situ, suggesting little evidence of rebuilding or re-used timbers. The queen strut roof is consistent with other buildings of the early C15 in Coventry. There is evidence for deep braces in what would have been the original external rear wall.

The fireplaces throughout the building are consistent with their C19 date, apart from one C20 brick surround; one at ground floor retains a large range.

There are cellars underneath the front range which appear to be a remodelling of an earlier cellar range. The original sections appear to represent two cells linked by a narrow corridor, although there is much re-used stone here which makes this unclear. In the western cellar there are three stones creating part of a straight joint in the western wall which seem to represent part of an early doorway, which would presumably have given access into the adjacent building.