Number 2 With Raised Forecourt And Boundary Walls

This is a mid-to-late 18th-century house, now used as offices, situated in Maldon. The building is constructed of red/brown Flemish-bond brick with rubbed brick arches, stucco ornamentation, and an eroded limestone cornice. It has a plain tile roof with a gambrel profile and flat top.

The main front, facing Gate Street, is symmetrical with three windows on each storey and attic dormers. The facade features rectangular projections on either side, with tripartite sash windows at the first floor, each featuring a stucco keystone. The ground floors of these projections have similar windows recessed beneath semicircular arches, adorned with painted stucco honeysuckle motifs and an impost band. The recessed central section has a narrow sash window above a Doric doorcase with an open pediment, triglyphs, a semicircular fanlight, and a recessed door with raised and fielded panels over flush panels.

The north-west garden front is similar in style, although with casement windows in the dormers and small-paned windows. A deeply recessed door with a Gothick-style intersecting glazing bar fanlight substitutes for the ground-floor Venetian windows. The London Road front displays two tall stacks behind the parapet and a broad projecting centre with small-paned sash windows flanked by blind recesses. The ground floor mirrors the first, with a central open-pedimented doorcase and recessed door of three flush panels. The north-east front has two projecting stacks (one truncated) and a small-paned sash window on the first floor.

Inside, the central hall is reached from Gate Street and features a semicircular rear arch with a keystone and moulded capitals. A dogleg staircase is particularly elaborate, with column-on-vase balusters, a column newel, a hardwood handrail, and fretwork shaped tread ends. A fretwork frieze with quatrefoils and interlace is located beneath the tread ends. An archway to the Gate Street door is framed in similar fretwork with lattice pilasters and an ornamental keystone. Ground-floor rooms retain plaster cornices, original doors, and architraves. Two front rooms have marble fireplaces, while a rear room has a fireplace with an eared architrave. A similar fireplace is found in the first-floor south-east room, and a semicircular arch is present on the upper-floor landing. A service staircase features crossed balusters.

The property includes a raised forecourt to the Gate Street frontage, curved into London Road, with a red-brick retaining wall, stone coping, and remnants of former chain railings. Two flights of stone steps lead to the main door, which have been substantially repaired. A high red-brick garden wall runs along London Road, linked to a lower wall in front of the house, with a wrought-iron railing flanking the entrance.