13A,15 AND 15A, BULL PLAIN

Nos. 13A, 15, and 15A Bull Plain is a former inn that has been converted into shops with offices above. The building dates from the 16th and 17th centuries, with some alterations made in the 20th century. It features a timber-framed structure that is plastered, topped with an old tiled roof that is hipped at the north end. There is a rear outshot at a higher level with a hipped end that rises above the main ridge line, and a brick chimneystack with oversailing courses at the front.

On the exterior, the first floor has one modern steel casement window on the left and three early 20th-century wood casements with mullions and transoms, arranged in 3-light, 2-light, and 3-light configurations. The ground floor of No. 13 has a modern timber arcaded shopfront featuring a moulded 'gothic' headed 4-light window and a half-glazed door on the left. No. 15 has a wide early 20th-century shopfront that cuts across the former jetty, with a central recessed doorway, plate glass display windows with canted sides, moulded mullions and transoms, and slim upper lights. There are pilasters on the left and right with cut consoles that have carved semicircular tops, along with a canted fascia and a blind box above. The entrance to the upper floor of No. 15A is recessed at the extreme right.

Inside, the building has exposed posts and beams at the first-floor level, suggesting it has a 4 or 5 bay structure, with two central bays that may be remnants of a much-altered hall house. Recently exposed 17th-century studwork includes a stud with older peg holes. The southern end of the building is ceiled approximately at collar level. Although the roof timbers have been largely renewed, they still feature halved and pegged rafters at the south end, carpenters' assembly marks, and later supplementary side purlins. The ground floor has been opened up significantly, especially in No. 13.

Historically, this building is significant as the site of the Bull Inn, which gave Bull Plain its name. It underwent extensive remodeling as a public house in the late 19th century and again in 1910 when the major ground floor shop was created.