3 St Mary's Passage

3 St Mary's Passage is a 17th-century timber-framed building that was adapted in the late 19th century as the showroom of F R Leach & Sons. The structure is covered in render and decorative plasterwork with a roof of plain red clay tiles.

The building sits in a row along the south side of St Mary's Passage, facing the Grade I listed church opposite. It has a narrow rectangular plan with a short rear cross wing.

The exterior displays a narrow street frontage in the neo-Jacobean style, comprising two storeys plus an attic beneath a steeply pitched roof with a modillion eaves cornice. The ground floor shopfront features a plain cornice and frieze with six tall, narrow leaded lights set above a painted brick plinth. To the right are a pair of tapering square pilasters adorned with strapwork. To the left stands an ornate segmental door hood with a dentilled course and supporting consoles. The elaborately panelled door, of unpainted timber and comprising six panels divided by wide rails, a muntin and stiles, displays a square-within-a square pattern on its middle two panels. Original door furniture survives, including a lock case, finger plate and letter box (though the latter is worn in the middle), all decorated with strapwork. Above the door is a row of six small bullseye panes.

The first floor is adorned with three plasterwork panels of raised fleur-de-lys with concave chamfers, filled with Tudor rose motifs. The upper floors are dominated by an off-centre rectangular oriel with three tall leaded lights divided by timber mullions, set upon an ogee moulded corbel in line with the shop front frieze. The oriel is surmounted by a gabled dormer with two leaded lights, plain bargeboards and a finial with strapwork panels. To the left of the oriel hangs the original bracket with an elaborate design of scrolls, flowers and fleur-de-lys, though the sign itself has been replaced.

The interior shows little visible evidence of the timber frame, which is presumed to survive beneath plastered surfaces. The ground and first floors have been remodelled into single large open-plan rooms, with the attic above. At the rear, the staircase probably dates to the F R Leach & Sons period. It comprises a quarter turn then a straight flight with open tread ends, two turned balusters per tread supporting a moulded handrail ramped at the turns, and square newels with acorn finials. The first floor west wall features a fireplace installed by Leach, incorporating tiles decorated by his firm. The fireplace has a moulded lugged timber surround (unpainted) and a decorative round-arched cast iron grate. The cheek tiles are painted with floral designs in pale yellow and green, while those on the grate bear geometric circular patterns in dark yellow and burgundy. Decorative plasterwork is thought to survive on the ceilings but has been hidden by later work. The cellar has a brick floor and a fireplace opening with a brick arch but no grate.