1, 2 And 3, Cornmarket

These three houses, now shops, stand on the south side of Cornmarket in Worcester and date from about 1700. They have been altered and extended, most notably with mid-19th century shop fronts. The front is painted brick, with stucco on the right-hand side, and has a plain tile roof, hipped to the left. The buildings are two storeys high with a first-floor arrangement of four windows to the left and three windows each to the centre and right. The first floor features a blind opening to the left, followed by six-over-six sash windows. Those windows to the right-hand house have keystones, while others are topped with cambered arches. A three-course band runs above the ground floor, with a modillion cornice still visible on the left.

The shop fronts vary; the left-hand shop has a panelled apron, the central shop has a double door with overlight and Victorian stanchions, and the right-hand shop has a grill and a canted double door with overlight. Each front has decorative pilasters, corbel brackets, and fascia. Dormer windows with six-pane fixed lights are visible in the attic to the left. The return elevation features a three-course band and a mix of sash windows, blind openings, and blocked windows, all with cambered arches.

Number 3 retains original interior joinery, including boxed beams, six-panel doors, a dogleg staircase with short rod-on-bobbin balusters and a closed string, exposed purlins and wind braces to the attic, and a small cast-iron fireplace. On the ground floor at the rear are two 19th-century alcoves, one with mock-book doors. Number 1 has a cast-iron range, chamfered beams, a six-over-six sash window now incorporated into an internal wall, a 19th-century cast-iron fireplace, moulded cornices, and a dogleg staircase with splat balusters and a moulded handrail, as well as exposed purlins and wide floorboards in the attic.

The buildings are part of a notable group with other listed buildings in Cornmarket and Mealcheapen Street, with Number 3 occupying an important corner site with a return to New Street and forming a good group with listed buildings there.