51, Trumpington Street

51 Trumpington Street is an early 19th-century former house with shop, adjacent to its neighbour at 2 Pembroke Street, which retains early 16th-century fabric behind an early 19th-century front. The building is notable for bearing one of the bespoke wall-mounted street lamps designed for Cambridge by Sir Albert Richardson.

The external walls are constructed chiefly of gault brick, with roofs predominantly covered in slate or plain tiles. Historic plan forms have been altered so that the basement and upper storeys of 51 Trumpington Street are no longer integrated with the eastern neighbour and are now known as 2 Pembroke Street. The ground floor of 51 Trumpington Street no longer communicates with the rest of the building.

51 Trumpington Street is three storeys high with an attic behind a parapet and a basement lit by lightwells on Pembroke Street. It is built of gault brick and presents two bays facing Trumpington Street and three facing Pembroke Street. The corner is formed as a recessed curve. The parapet is marked by a plat band. The windows of the upper storeys are generally all un-horned wooden-framed sashes with concealed boxes, set beneath flat gauged-brick arches. Each of these windows has an external iron frame for a flower box, except the tall first floor windows onto Trumpington Street, which are French doors beneath fixed transom lights that have early 19th-century balconettes. At ground floor on Trumpington Street there is a shop front comprising a plain surround with a central doorway flanked by large single-pane windows, deeply set. On Pembroke Street there is a central doorway beneath a recessed brick surround and a round arch; to the left is a single-pane window beneath a top-hung transom light, to the right is an original sash window with external wooden shutters.

Fixed to the east end of the first floor of 51 Trumpington Street is a wall-mounted 'Richardson Candle' street lamp. The street lamp comprises a vertical, tubular lantern of translucent glass, containing fluorescent tubes. The lantern has a simple cast-iron capping and base, and is wall-mounted via a pair of plain metal brackets at each end. The lower bracket is embossed with the word REVO.

2 Pembroke Street is two storeys high and stands to the east of 51 Trumpington Street. It is partly oversailed by 3 Pembroke Street at first floor. The street elevation is faced in gault brick. At ground floor there is a recessed doorway framed by stone pilasters and a moulded canopy, to the right of which is a pair of two-over-four unhorned sash windows with concealed boxes and flat gauged-brick arches. At first floor there is a broad central window, a four-over-four unhorned sash with concealed boxes, recessed within a depressed arch. The window is flanked by recessed brick panels (tall, with a shorter panel above). There is a dentil cornice beneath the parapet.

The ground floor interior has been heavily altered through changing commercial practices and as a consequence of fire damage in the late 20th century. Elsewhere the interior circulation has been altered to join 51 Trumpington Street and 2 Pembroke Street, but the principal rooms retain most of their historic dimensions. Surviving within them are cornices, skirtings, six-panelled doors and some fire surrounds.

Of particular interest are the exposed elements of an historic timber frame within 2 Pembroke Street at first floor: a braced and pegged tie-beam of perhaps 16th-century date. The frame retains carpenters' assembly marks, and was evidently part of an open interior volume when constructed. The northern wall plate has been truncated on the west side and must historically have continued further towards Trumpington Street.

A staircase rises through all floors of 51 Trumpington Street and has a mahogany handrail terminating in a monkey-tail newel at ground floor with an ebony plug. The balusters are turned, and the open string has scrolling brackets.