40, West Street

No. 40 West Street is a house that dates back to the 16th century or earlier, with some 18th-century features. It is timber-framed and has a front made of red Flemish-bond brick, topped with a gabled clay plain tile roof. The building has two storeys and attics, featuring a gabled dormer with two casement lights behind a plain parapet.

On the first floor, there is one square flush double-hung sash window with small panes under a flat rubbed brick arch, along with a similar narrow double-hung sash window. The ground floor includes a similar square double-hung sash window and an entrance door with a semicircular rubbed brick arch and a fanlight above, which has a petal-like glazing bar pattern, although some bars are missing. The entrance door is an early 19th-century design with four vertical panels. The house has a black tarred plinth and a projecting course of bricks above the first-floor window hoods.

This building is the surviving southeast bay of a larger timber-framed house, the rest of which has been destroyed. Originally, it was a single storey with a half-storey attic above, and this bay likely served as a parlour. Inside, the northwest flank features an original four-centred arched door head and a 'Colchester bracing' wall brace. The flank wall of the adjacent No. 39 also reveals good quality 16th-century work. The attic floor joists are lodged, and there are no tying members at plate level.