44 And 44A, St Andrew Street

This is a house, dating back to the 19th century, built on the site of an earlier structure. It incorporates a ground-floor shop. The building is timber-framed and has been covered with stucco and masonry, and it has a hipped roof covered with Welsh slate, which includes decorative panels and brackets along the eaves. Originally, it contained two rooms with a central chimney stack, but the ground-floor section of this chimney was removed to create the shop unit at number 44A.

The exterior is three storeys high. The first floor has two flush-set sash windows with divided panes and architrave surrounds. A single sash window on the second floor has eight square panes. Rusticated quoins are located at the sides of the facade, and there’s a recessed 20th-century shop front on the ground floor. Above this, a projecting, jettied front features an original 19th-century fascia and a blind box.

Inside, very little of the original fabric appears to predate the 19th century. However, two closet doors with roughly fielded panels, one located on the first floor between two back-to-back fireplaces, may be from the 18th century and have been re-used. There’s a simple 19th-century staircase with a moulded handrail, a close string, and stick balusters, although these are now partially concealed by 20th-century sheeting.