24-30, LONDON ROAD

A row of four cottages located on London Road, Maldon, dates from the early 19th century. The cottages are timber-framed and rendered, with a pantiled gabled roof. Large party-wall stacks are situated between numbers 24 and 26, and between numbers 28 and 30. The cottages are one storey high with attics; the front elevation originally had a four-window range. Numbers 26 and 28 have two gabled dormers with sash windows, and their ground floors feature two 16-pane sash windows. Number 26 has an entrance with a moulded hood supported by panelled pilasters. Number 24 has a 12-pane sash window, and number 30 has a 16-pane sash window, both leading to entrances. The flanks are clad in black weatherboarding; number 24 includes an asymmetrical-roofed single-storey extension with a 20th-century canted bay window facing the street. A 16-pane sash window sits above a fixed 9-pane window on the north-west flank. Rear extensions, with flat roofs and 20th-century construction, are attached to numbers 26 and 28; each unit has a dormer window to the rear, with number 24’s dormer being gabled. The interior reveals a conversion from a non-residential use, likely a farm building, with evidence of a former cart lodge indicated by a colonnade of chamfered hardwood framing along the rear wall. An attic floor was subsequently inserted, using pine bridging joists that penetrate an original exterior wall of weatherboarding near the rear. Number 24 features pine fireplaces with shortened dentilled cornices and was formerly known as 'Gooseberry Hall'.