17-37, EAST STREET

This is a row of eleven terraced workers' houses on East Street, Saffron Walden, built in the early to mid-19th century. The houses sit on a steeply sloping site. They are constructed of flint with irregular stones, with red brick dressings and a slate roof. The roof has an asymmetrical ridge, with a steeper pitch to the rear. The long, rectangular houses are three stories in height, although the street front shows only two stories and a basement due to the slope of the land.

The front elevation has eleven identical units, each featuring a flat-headed doorway and windows. The ground floor has boarded doors with decorative mouldings and sliding sash windows with four-by-four panes. Basement windows have gratings. The first floor windows are similar to those on the ground floor, but with four-by-three panes. Original doorways are at numbers 19 and 31, and some original windows remain at numbers 19, 27, 33, and 35. Eight of the houses have cast-iron round-headed boot scrapers. The rear north elevation is of similar flint and brick construction. A red brick stack runs through the roof pitch, indicating an integral outshut design.

The rear elevation has three clear stories, and shows substantial replacement of doors and windows, although these largely remain within the original openings. The ground and first floors have segment-headed doorways and windows, with a central ground-floor door featuring an upper glazed panel and two lower recessed panels. The first and second floor windows are sliding sashes, predominantly with six-by-three panes, though some first-floor sashes combine three-by-three and two-by-three panes. The west end has an asymmetrical gable reflecting the sloping site.

Inside number 31, a principal ground floor fireplace with a segmental head is visible.