International Stores

This is a large shop and dwelling, originally an inn, dating from the late 15th century with significant alterations in the late 17th, mid 18th, and late 19th centuries. The building is timber-framed and plastered, with painted 18th and 19th century brickwork, and has slate and pantile roofs; a gault brick end stack is on the left-hand side, with a red brick ridge stack and two rear stacks. It extends across eleven bays to the street. The central five bays, representing the main 17th-century range, were refenestrated in the mid-18th century, incorporating a 15th-century structure to the northwest and a cartway, and a late 19th-century extension of three bays extends to the southeast.

The central five bays feature a moulded eaves cornice, a band between the floors, and a brick plinth. A main entrance is accessed by three stone steps leading to double panelled doors within a wooden doorcase featuring paired reeded columns, panelled reveals, and dentil enrichment to the cornice. There are additional doorways to the southwest and northeast. Six ground floor, twelve-paned hung sash windows are blocked as blind windows, with one four-paned hung sash window to the right. Nine windows and two blind windows are on the first floor, including seven twelve-paned hung sash windows. Four flat-roofed dormer windows are present, two with casements and two with horizontal sliding sashes. Rear wings include a stair turret and extensions.

A surviving section of the original Griffin Inn is visible in the northeast range, comprising one and a half timber-framed bays jettied to the southwest. A ground floor room contains wall paintings depicting a repeating pattern of floral enriched quatrefoils. Historically, the property was owned by weavers and drapers in the 18th century, then by Thomas Maris, a collar maker, in 1792. From 1840, it belonged to J Tyler, a grocer and draper, and by 1858 it operated as Holttum's general store. The inn closed in 1860 when the market ceased.