13-15, NORTH HILL

A shop building, likely dating back to the early 15th century with a rear wing, and featuring an early 17th-century frontage that was later refronted in the early 19th century and includes a late 19th-century shopfront. The building is timber-framed, with exposed framing and plaster infilling on the south wall of the east wing. The west, north, and east walls are of early 19th-century red brick, with the east wall painted. It has a tiled roof and a 19th-century brick chimney stack. The building follows an L-shape, with the 15th-century wing forming a long wall jetty. It is two stories high, with three windows facing the street and irregular window placement on the rear wing. The east front has two 12-pane and one marginal sash windows from the early 19th century. Two late 19th-century shopfronts are present, featuring fascias, pilasters, and brackets. The south front of the rear wing includes a jetty with curved braces on both floors, two blocked arched doorways, a possible staircase door, and a fine original double window with cinquefoil-headed lights. Other rear wing windows date from the mid-19th century. The rear wing’s interior reveals exposed timber framing, including a kingpost roof, and late 16th-century coloured wall paintings on three sides of a room. These paintings feature panels with floral decorations and trompe-l'oeil cornices. Scarf joints display sallied butts, indicative of an early 15th-century construction. The rear range is notable as a long wall jetty to the rear of and at right angles to the frontage, a unique feature in Essex. The building was likely a mixed-use structure, but its original use remains unknown. The listing acknowledges that a concentration of buildings of this type was uncommon.