Carriageway To Alley Between Numbers 22 And 26

The carriageway to the alley between numbers 22 and 26 is an early 16th-century structure located in Saffron Walden. It features a timber-framed and plastered design with a peg tile roof and is two storeys high with a rectangular plan. The south elevation facing the street has a portal, with the west side restored in the 19th century. The posts are adorned with medieval pilasters and capitals, and there is a leaf-decorated spandrel supporting the arch bracing of the head. Above this, there is a 19th-century display board featuring a leaf design that matches those below, advertising "W. Hart, est. 1836," a firm of printers and stationers still in operation.

The upper section consists of a timber-framed wall that is plastered with simple combed pargetting, and it includes a central 19th-century sash window with three by four panes. The roof is half hipped at the eastern end. On the rear, or north elevation, there is an arch-braced portal similar to the front but without decoration. The first floor above the carriageway features lath and plaster with a central boarded door that has ventilation slits, flanked by simple fixed windows on each side. This room is now isolated, as there is no access from either side.

The side walls of the carriageway to the east exhibit heavy central cross framing with close studded infilling, and there is a remnant of a capital on the central post. The ground floor has an arch-headed doorway at the rear with leaf-decorated spandrels and moulded jambs. The west side features cross framing with a pair of upper stud braces, and there is a side doorway at the rear similar to the one on the east wall, although its head has been restored with plain boarding. The timber framing continues from the carriageway on the west side as part of number 26, extending along the alley with later brick infilling and replacement. The original moulded joists of the high ceiling remain visible within the carriageway. This structure, along with numbers 20, 20A, and 26, resembles the shape of a typical large medieval inn.