26, Church Street

This is a shop and offices situated on the corner of Church Street and Museum Street. The original structure dates to the late 16th century, with significant remodelling occurring in the early 19th century. It is built with timber framing and plastered walls, and has a peg-tiled roof aligned along Museum Street. The building has a long rectangular plan.

The south-facing front elevation, onto Church Street, features a gable end with 19th-century detailing. The ground floor contains a full-width shop with a centrally recessed doorway, simple plate glass windows with upper frieze glazing bars (now plain glass), and tiles positioned below the windows. The doorway has a segment-headed shape with upper glazing and a fielded lower panel, flanked by fluted pilasters and consoles. A simple three-bay sash window is located on the first floor. The gable is tile hung, with a band of shaped tiles at mid-height and broad 20th-century bargeboards.

The west-facing elevation onto Museum Street is irregular, with a central early 19th-century doorway featuring plain pilasters, a simple cornice hood, and a door with a large single upper glazed panel and two lower flush-beaded panels. To the south is a single window and a corner console relating to the 19th-century shop front. Above this, a 20th-century three-light casement window with leaded rectangular panes is positioned on one side. North of the doorway is a small ground floor window with a leaded roof and sash windows with thin glazing bars (2x4, 3x4, 2x4 panes). Above is a heavily reconstructed tripartite frieze window, with 16th-century roll-moulded mullions at the sides; the northern lights contain small intermediate mullion bars, while the central window consists of three casements with leaded rectangular panes, one fixed and two hinged, with fixed lights above.

The rear, east-facing elevation is partially obscured by numbers 26A and 28 to the south. To the north is a tall, timber-framed, two-storey block dating to approximately 1800, with a hipped roof and a small red brick stack at the north end. This section has 20th-century pargetting and a 20th-century door with upper glazing (3x3 panes) and two lower sunk panels. An adjacent 20th-century casement window has 4x4 panes. The first floor has a two-light casement window, with a similar window on the north return face adjacent to the stack. The range continues along the yard to the north as a simple 19th-century ground floor lean-to with a slate roof, abutting an adjoining property. A 19th-century fixed window with 4x4 panes and a 20th-century sliding sash window with 2x2 panes are also present.

The interior has undergone considerable alterations. Originally, the building had a jettied frontage along Museum Street. A doorway to Museum Street is now located on the site of an old passageway, which once led to rear cellar steps. A raised floor level at the north end reveals an 1800s timber-framed block (visible from the rear) and formerly a separate property. An infill section contains a stair flanked by early 19th-century bead-moulded boarding and three contemporary cupboards. The cellaring below may have 16th-century origins but was greatly enlarged in the 19th century. The first floor features a wind braced side purlin roof, with internal tension bracing and heavy restoration.