The Bell

The Bell is a public house, now a house, dating to the early 19th century, with earlier origins and a rear range from the late 16th century. It is located on Silver Street in Maldon. The main frontage block is timber-framed and rendered, with a Gault brick front, and a half-hipped plain tile roof. A large square stack rises through the front roof slope, and there is a stack to the rear wall. A timber-framed cottage range is attached to the east, with a gabled plain tile roof and render. The building’s layout is L-shaped.

The exterior is two storeys with an attic and a cellar, displaying a three-window range. Two 20th-century segmental roofed dormers are visible behind a plain parapet. A string band of two projecting courses sits above small-paned sash windows with gauged brick flat arches, flanking a central blind opening with a semicircular brick arch. The central ground-floor entrance has a semicircular head with a panelled keystone and imposts, enclosing a semicircular fanlight with radiating glazing bars, a reeded surround, and a contemporary six-panel door with two glazed top panels. A flight of three steps has early 19th-century wrought-iron handrails with boot scrapers. Canted flat-roofed bay windows with unsubdivided sashes are situated on either side of the entrance. A black-rendered plinth with a cellar light is present, and an elaborate wrought-iron knocker is affixed to the first floor for an inn sign. The south flank is rendered with a square sash window to the attic, featuring a single central vertical glazing bar. The first floor has one flush sash window with a moulded surround and a single vertical glazing bar. The ground floor has a large horizontal casement of eight lights to exposed timber-framing and an open pedimented doorcase with a triangular-topped fanlight and Gothic glazing. A rear cottage has a gabled plain tile roof with four 20th-century gabled dormers, each with a two-light casement and a single horizontal glazing bar. The ground floor of the cottage has four small-paned sashes with margin glazing and one small square window. The east-facing gable has a single 20th-century small-paned sash. A single-storey, slate-roofed conservatory lean-to is attached to the rear of the main block.

The interior of the main block retains shutters on the front, and the north ground-floor room has 19th-century public house-type panelling, restored stencil patterns, and reused etched glass from the front. The cottage range is a late 16th-century house, now much altered, with the main framing and tie beams substantially in situ.