Abbey House and 2 Rear Ranges of Former Outbuildings

Abbey House and 2 Rear Ranges of Former Outbuildings

This early 19th-century building complex on the west side of High Street in Saffron Walden was formerly known as The Abbey Hotel. It now serves as offices and shops.

The main block is constructed of red and brown Flemish bond brickwork, now rendered on the main elevations, with a gambrel plain tile roof. It rises to two storeys with attics and a former cellar. The front elevation to High Street is defined by a parapeted abuttment to the north and a gable end stack. Four flat-roofed dormers have been rebuilt behind the parapet. A painted timber cornice with paired modillions runs across the façade.

The first floor features a canted oriel bay window containing a small-paned double-hung sash window, with a panelled frieze beneath. The main cornice carries around its head. A single flush 12-paned double-hung sash window is also present. The ground floor contains two 20th-century hardwood small-paned display windows and a doorcase with panelled pilasters, moulded flat hood and fanlight. The fanlight is rectangular with glazing bars forming a semi-circle and radiating outer pattern.

At the curving corner to Abbey Lane, the first floor has one curved tripartite small-paned double-hung sash window. The ground floor has a smaller 20th-century small-paned hardwood display window. The flank elevation to Abbey Lane includes one small first-floor window above a 2-light casement and a further 20th-century small-paned display window.

To the rear, fronting Abbey Lane, is a two-storey range of outbuildings constructed in red Flemish bond brickwork with a gabled plain tile roof. The first floor contains a 19th-century casement and two raised slate lean-to roofed dormers. The ground floor is rendered with three recessed 20th-century shopfronts. The rear of this range features two full-height brick buttresses.

A further two-storey timber-framed and rendered range is situated to the rear of the north end of the front range. It has a plain tile gabled roof and ridge line stack. Facing into the old inn courtyard on its first floor are two 16-paned and one 12-paned double-hung sash windows.

Behind this range is a two-storey former stable range constructed of random flintwork with brick dressings and a gabled plain tile roof. It has 20th-century small-pane double-hung sashes and a door to a bridge link on the first floor, with two similar windows and two 19th-century 2-light casements on the ground floor.

To the rear of the stable range is a two-storey gabled plain tile roofed outbuilding, timber-framed but with a red brick west gable end. It comprises three bays, with three small-paned full-width casement windows on the first floor above three panels of rusticated weatherboarding. The ground floor has segmental moulded arches on Doric pilasters flanking a wider central similar arch, now with infill walling and 20th-century windows and doors.

The rear of the main High Street range features a lean-to extension forming a catslide with the main roof, partly of slate, and includes a wide 33-paned horizontally sliding sash window. A single-storey slated extension adjoins the ground floor, with a flat-roofed 20th-century extension beyond. A flat-roofed dormer is set into the rear roof slope, and a stack passes through the roof of the Abbey Lane return block.

The ground floor room of the main range (now a shop) retains two fluted columns against the side walls with palm leaf capitals framing a former apsidal end, marked by a reeded cornice on the present ceiling. A straight flight staircase with column newels is also visible.