17, 19 AND 21, KING STREET

Nos. 17, 19 and 21 King Street, Saffron Walden

A large medieval hall house comprising a central hall (No. 19) with cross-wings to either side (Nos. 17 and 21). The building displays construction from the late 15th and early 16th centuries, with significant alterations and additions in the late 16th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and further changes in the early 19th and 20th centuries. The structures are timber-framed, with exposed and plastered elevations, and peg-tiled roofs. The plan consists of a two-storey L-shaped principal range running parallel to the street, with a medieval extension at the rear of No. 21.

The North Front Elevation

The central range (No. 19) presents a façade dating from around 1800, featuring a central doorway with fluted jambs and a simple flat hood. The door itself has six recessed panels. There are windows on both floors to either side of the doorway, each fitted with sashes, moulded architraves, and glazing bars in 4x4 panes. A 19th-century stack passes through the front roof pitch and sits off-centre to the east.

The East Cross-Wing (No. 17)

This wing displays exposed 15th-century timber framing of plain studding, jetted to both the front and around the side onto Cross Street. A stout angle post with cyma and roll-moulded capital survives, along with remnants of a moulded base and bold shaped brackets supporting the jetty. The ground floor contains a restored remnant of a medieval shop opening and a restored doorway with a four-centred arched head. A late 19th-century oak door with two upper glazed lights and lower panels has been installed. A central late 19th-century rectangular oriel bay window with plain glass is framed with outer shaping resembling medieval pilaster buttresses, topped by an embattled cornice. The first floor retains a heavily restored eight-light window with a cinquefoil head and original jamb mouldings. A projecting, moulded tie-beam overhangs the front, and original multi-cusped barge-boards with leaf decoration remain. Two apex dragons and a shield bearing a cross ornament the base of the western barge-board.

The West Cross-Wing (No. 21)

This wing displays similar barge-boards to the eastern end, indicating contemporaneity of the two cross-wings. The frontage is plastered and recessed below the tie-beam level, suggesting a similar tie-beam structure within. The ground floor features a broad 19th-century shop front inserted into the hall block at the eastern end, with a seven-light shallow canted bay window, slender vertical glazing bars, and a simple slender upper transom bar. Panelling below supports a projecting rectangular flat hood decorated with fleurons and set on corner brackets. A shop doorway at the western end has an over-light and a door with upper glazing arranged in 3x3 panes and a lower recessed panel with inset square corner decoration. The first floor contains an early 19th-century three-cant corbelled oriel window with cornice and a shaped leaded roof. The sashes feature glazing bars with arched heads matching those of the shop front below, arranged in 1x4, 4x4, and 1x4 panes respectively.

The East Elevation to Cross Street

This side of No. 17 shows exposed timber framing with first-floor tension braces extending from the ends. The ground floor displays two pairs of shop openings, restored but retaining original four-centred arched heads and upper moulded framing, as well as sills of the southern pair. At the southern end sits an original moulded door frame with a head similar to the shop openings, now restored as a window with late 19th-century lower boarding and an embattled sill. The first floor, above the jetty, contains two restored two-light medieval windows matching those on the front, with cinquefoiled heads and original moulded jambs.

The rear of this unit extends south into Cross Street. This extension is 20th-century work in brick and mock timber framing with a jetty. Twin shop windows with end doors echo the medieval style. The first floor displays mock studding with a long central multi-paned window.

The Rear Elevations

The southern elevation clearly shows the separate hall and cross-wing units with rendered framing. The hall (No. 19) has a slate-roofed lean-to partially clad in weatherboarding, a 20th-century door with upper glazing in 2x3 panes and lower panel, and a narrow 20th-century casement window. A 20th-century skylight pierces the peg-tiled roof, and a tall narrow 19th-century red brick stack runs laterally from the old hall. The eastern cross-wing gable has a 20th-century plain light, and a 20th-century shop extension with a plain rendered wall and slate roof extends to the south. The western cross-wing is rendered with 20th-century ashlar lining and irregular windows, mostly of late 18th-century date with moulded architraves and glazing bars. A 19th-century glass-roofed porch runs north-south at the ground floor. The porch doorway has an over-light and a door with upper glazing featuring margin lights and a lower sunken panel. A large sliding sash window with 10x5 lights and another with 4x3 lights are present; a 20th-century narrow casement window and a 4x4 sash window are also fitted. A simple doorway contains a 20th-century four-panelled door with upper glazing. The first floor displays a two-light casement window in 4x3 panes, a sash in 3x4 panes, and a two-light casement in 2x2 panes. A small gault brick stack sits at the northern end, and a red brick apex stack halfway along the range with an adjacent roof break suggest a southern addition.

Interior

The hall has been much rebuilt, obscuring early features. However, heavy hollow-chamfer moulded tie-beams and arched braces of the hall central truss remain exposed. A spandrel on the north side survives with cinquefoiled tracery, and an adjacent tenon of a removed interior cornice is visible at eaves level. An octagonal lower section of the central crown-post, with a flared moulded base, is exposed. A heavy inserted late 16th-century first floor features diminished haunched soffit tenoned joists, laid flat with a massive binding joist running across the site of the original central truss. Both the front and back of the hall have been raised approximately 0.5 metres, now fitted with 18th-century front windows, though this raising was probably contemporary with the 16th-century floor insertion. A lateral stack to the hall remains obscured but is said to be of early type, probably contemporary with the same 16th-century hall alterations. A stack through the centre of the hall adjacent to the central truss is obscured but likely dates to the 18th or 19th centuries.

The eastern cross-wing's first floor was rebuilt following an early 20th-century fire. The ground floor retains heavy flat-laid centre-tenon joists, a diagonal dragon-beam, and partition evidence in the form of stud mortices and wattle grooves, implying two medieval shops within one block, each served by a pair of windows onto Cross Street.

In the western cross-wing, the front of the original unit has been reworked. A cellar below contains some old pebble walling. The rear range extending to the yard features heavy joists carrying a floor with a sag toward the yard, suggesting a possible original jetty. A principal truss without jowls on posts survives, along with a short corner tie-beam brace and matching joints for another such brace. Above stands a sturdy two-way braced plain crown-post. The southern end of the range represents a separate build, evidenced by its simple crown-post roof, dating it to before approximately 1570. A short gap between the roof builds contains a stack, either contemporary or occupying the site of an earlier timber-framed stack or smoke-bay.