Hillcrest House

Hillcrest House, formerly known as Hillcrest Temperance Hotel, is a building located on Market Hill in Maldon. It dates from the late 18th century or early 19th century and has been converted from a house to offices. The structure is timber-framed and rendered, featuring a half-hipped gambrel roof and an L-plan layout.

The exterior of the building consists of two storeys with an attic, cellar, and a rooftop belvedere, arranged in a three-window range. The belvedere has a hipped slate roof and is glazed on two sides with horizontal-sliding small-paned casements, while the other two sides are covered in white weatherboarding. The front facade includes three 20th-century dormers with segmental tops and 9-pane sash windows, along with a painted timber dentilled eaves cornice. On the first floor, there is a 16-pane flush sash window on either side of a 12-pane sash window. The ground floor features a central pedimented doorcase with a pulvinated frieze, fluted Doric pilasters, and four steps with 20th-century wrought-iron handrails. The pair of doors has two raised-and-fielded panels over flush panels. Flanking the entrance are flat-roofed bow windows with 16-pane sashes.

The south side of the building is finished with white plastic boarding and includes one 12-pane sash window and a metal escape balcony to the attic, as well as one 16-pane sash window on the first floor. The north side of the main block has one 12-pane sash window on the first floor. The rear wing has two storeys with a gabled plain tile roof and features two 12-pane sash windows on each floor of the north wall. At the rear, there is a parallel two-storey brick block from the 19th century with a slate roof.

Inside, the entrance hall retains original door architraves and a dogleg stair with column-on-vase balusters leading to the first and attic storeys. The southern ground-floor room has contemporary panelling with elliptical-headed keyed niches on either side of the fireplace, and an overmantel with a pulvinated entablature over an eared and shouldered architrave. The northern ground-floor room features a plaster cornice, simple panelling, and an early 19th-century marble fireplace. Some 17th and 18th-century panelling can be found in the attic and on the stairs.