11, 13 AND 15, MUSEUM STREET

A house, now divided into three separate dwellings, dating from the late 15th century with 19th-century division and fenestration, and 20th-century rear additions and modernisation. The building is timber-framed and plastered with a peg-tiled roof and red brick stacks.

The plan is rectangular with two storeys and roof voids now in use. The front (west) elevation is notably jettied with six jetty brackets running along its length. The ground floor has three boarded front doors: those to numbers 13 and 15 are 19th-century, while number 11's is 20th-century with moulded battens. Three 19th-century windows with sliding sashes are present—two with 4x2 panes and one with 2x2 panes—each accompanied by a 19th-century hinged single shutter of battened boards with iron swivel catches. The first floor contains three two-light casement windows, each with 2x2 panes. The roof is steep and high; the stack between numbers 13 and 15 shows old irregular bricks at its base with a 19th-century rebuild above. A large 18th-century external end stack is visible on the south gable end.

The rear (east) elevation features lean-tos at each end constructed in colourwashed brick—single storey to the south, two-storey to the north, with a two-storey gabled unit between. Number 15 has a deeper 20th-century extension facing south. Three doors are present: number 11 has a boarded door with 20th-century restored ironwork, while numbers 13 and 15 have 20th-century segment-headed doors with upper glazing and glazing bars. Windows are scattered across the rear, all 20th-century casements, either plain, fixed, or with glazing bars, with 2x2 or 2x3 panes. The roof has two 20th-century hipped peg-tiled dormers with two-light casements.

The south end elevation presents a gable end jetty to the street with a rear outshut of brick construction and less steeply pitched roof. A bold 18th-century stack rises over the gable apex; a tall, slender 19th-century stack in pink brick serves the outshut, its base swelling to show the site of a bread oven, now removed. Windows are scattered: two two-light 19th-century casements serve the rear of the 18th-century stack, a 20th-century narrow single-light casement occupies the ground floor, and another narrow casement serves the roof space to the front of the stack.

The interior reveals considerable exposed framing clearly demonstrating the elements of a medieval 'Wealden' open hall house. The recessed single-bay central hall (number 13) is heavily sooted and has subsequently received an inserted jettied first floor, creating the characteristic long jettied profile. The medieval house's orientation runs with its high end to the south and low end to the north. A unitary two-way braced crown-post roof extends the entire length from end to end.

Number 13 ground floor features a finely moulded head beam at the high (south) end with a roll in hollow chamfer. The axial joist of the inserted floor is chamfered and runs into a circa 1600 inserted stack, positioned against the cross-passage. The stack contains small bricks with well-preserved herringbone patterning at the fireback and a timber lintel (now reduced as a soffit), along with an inglenook seat and rear salt recesses. The original rear wall, now cut through, preserves reset moulded mullions within the hall's rear window aperture and an accompanying shutter groove. The first floor street frontage retains both arched eaves braces, which originally supported the Wealden 'flying' eaves plate. The roof space clearly shows the sooted crown-post structure.

Number 15 (the north, low end) has a ground floor whose present street door frame still retains remnants of cyma moulding and doorhead pegs from the original cross-entry doorway. A very complete similar moulded door frame with cyma and hollow chamfers survives at the rear on the same line. Ceiling joists display stud mortices and wattle grooves for a buttery-pantry division, with gaps marking the original site of a pair of doors. The cross-entry is clearly undershot beneath the original storeyed end, with a remnant of the screen surviving from the street door. A spere head-beam is evident, hollow-chamfered toward the hall with a mortice for partial side screening. An 18th-century fireplace from the north end stack is present on the first floor. The crown-post roof bears partition studding on the hall side, shutter grooves, and rectangular mortices for the moulded mullions of a four-light front window. Good wall framing in the northeast corner and sooted framing to the hall incorporate bold tension bracing. Secondary features include a rectangular pattern of large peg holes, probably from a weaver's warping frame, and a small corner fireplace to the front, linked to the old inserted stack toward number 13.

Number 11 (the high end bay) retains considerable old framing, though much is concealed. The ground floor features an elegantly hollow-chamfered moulded axial joist running into the south end 18th-century stack with an old timber lintel, now skinned with 20th-century brick. The first-floor window is positioned where an original window stood, indicated by a gap in stud pegging. The crown-post roof continues from number 13. The rear lean-to dates to the late 17th century and features a simple trapped side purlin roof.

The house represents a 'compressed' Wealden house form, particularly characteristic of urban examples, with a narrow hall (lacking a central crown-post truss) and an undershot cross-passage. The compression is further evidenced by the ground floor partition wall at the high end being set back under the solar chamber by approximately 0.75 metres, creating a simple canopy ornamented by the moulded head-beam visible in number 13.