Cross Keys Hotel

SAFFRON WALDEN

TL5338 HIGH STREET 669-1/1/196 (East side) 28/11/51 No.32 Cross Keys Hotel

GV II*

Former house and shop, now public house. C15, C16 and early C19. Timber-framed, part rendered and parts with original framing exposed. Low pitched slate roof, hipped on SW corner with small gablet. 2 storeys. L plan. Front to High Street is of 2 parts, all with rendering raised above original exposed timber-framed facades. The N part has exposed jetty with 2 brackets and C19 leaded light oriels, on ground and first floors. The S corner block has frieze window of traceried lights (largely a restoration) with panel of original, thin, plank-like chevron bracing. Beneath the exposed jetty are 2 original shop windows and early C20 door opening. The S flank of corner block is jettied (dragon post on corner) with curved arch braces, 2 further drop windows and series of cinquefoil-headed paired windows. A block to the rear, E, is rendered with jetty and 2 exposed brackets and has four 16 paned double hung sashes on the first floor. The ground floor has a 16 paned similar window and 2 paired 12 paned double-hung sashes, a door and a 16 paned casement. Tall C19 stack over E gable end and truncated stack on ridge line, near W end of roof. The SW corner block is a former shop with original entrance from King Street. The N flank originally contained a `high-end-recess' for former hall bench. The adjoining block to N was an early C16 parlour, open framed to shop and with moulded (recessed ogees), bridging joist and girts. The later S flank wall is of C16 panelling with frieze of fluting, 4 consoles and inserted marquetry panel with arch, date 1569 and initials W.A. The rear wall had a post where mouldings are interrupted by leaf stops framing a contemporary rear stack (now much altered). The front ground floor wall of this block originally contained a door opening (to N) and a very wide oriel taking up the rest of the facade. The S wall on the first floor is thought to have similar panelling. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Ratcliffe E: Essex: London: 1965-: 335; Vernacular Architecture: Stenning DF: Timber Framed Shops, 1300-1600: Comparative plans:16: 1985-: 35-39; Stacey HC: Saffron Walden in Old Photographs: Saffron Walden: 1980-: FIG.45,46).

Listing NGR: TL5373338455