34, 36 AND 38, GOLD STREET

34, 36 and 38 Gold Street is a terraced row of houses dating from the early 16th century, with 18th-century additions and alterations, and a restoration in the 20th century. The buildings are timber-framed, with some parts exposed and others plastered. They have a long rectangular plan with irregular rear projections and stand two storeys high with cellars.

The east-facing front elevation features a long jetty range with the first-floor framing exposed. It consists of four bays with close studding and a tension brace at the southern end. There are principal jetty joists and support brackets, along with a large rectangular chimney stack at the southern end made of red brick, partly rendered. The first floor has four windows arranged from south to north: two 2x2 paned casement windows, two 2-light sliding sash windows with four panes by three panes, and a 20th-century three-light casement window with leaded glazing surrounding an early 16th-century oriel window that has a moulded projecting sill.

On the ground floor, from south to north, there is a single-light casement window, a sash window with glazing bars featuring four panes by four panes, and a 20th-century fully-glazed door with three panes by five panes, set beneath an original 16th-century four-centred arched door head that is hollow chamfered and has flower and leaf decorated spandrels. There is also a 19th-century four-panelled door and a four panes by three panes sliding sash window, both located under 16th-century rectangular framed and moulded twin shop window frames. A cellar opening is present below, with a top-hung wooden boarded door, and a 20th-century 2x2 paned casement window with a blocked cellar opening now featuring an air vent.

The rear, or west elevation, has gabled additions that were renovated in the 20th century. The interior has not been inspected, but a plan from Stenning's work indicates a 16th-century layout that includes a doorway with a decorated head leading to a cross passage, with a rear service and stair doorway. The northern shop has service rooms behind it, while the hall is located to the south of the cross passage and features an internal fireplace at the southern end, adjacent to a doorway leading to the parlour. The northern end door originally led to a throughway to the rear, with the northern bay originally functioning as a separate unit from the rest.