97 High Street

97 High Street is a house and commercial premises built in the early 18th century with alterations from the 20th century.

The building is constructed of red brick on the upper floors with a plain tile roof. It is terraced, facing south-west to High Street, and curves northwards to the rear.

The main elevation is a three-bay three-and-a-half storey composition with a mid-20th century shopfront positioned over a concealed basement. The hipped roof, covered in plain tiles, is concealed behind an early-20th century red brick parapet with red brick piers on each side. This parapet replaced a moulded brick entablature in 1906. The walls of the first and second floors are laid in Flemish bond. Giant engaged red-brick pilasters span both floors and terminate in moulded Ionic capitals; the right capital has been lost. The first and second floors contain segmental-headed window openings with 19th century margined sliding sashes without horns. 19th century stone sills and moulded brick aprons conceal the original extent of the 18th century windows; first-floor sills are obscured by ground-floor shop signage. The shopfront was replaced and the ground floor extended northwards to the rear around 1960. The rear elevation shows numerous blocked window openings. The second floor retains a four-over-four sash window without a sill; its sash box is fully exposed and flush with the façade, suggesting early-18th century origins.

Internally, the ground floor shop was gutted in the 20th century, but much early-18th century fabric survives above. The interior plan derives from the 17th century, with the staircase placed centrally between a front (south-west) and rear (north-east) room. The stair originally rose from the basement to the second floor, but the section between basement and first floor was removed around 1903. The open string stair between the first and second floors rises around an open well with a ramped handrail, sharply cut twisted balusters (two to each tread) and shaped tread ends. Some balusters have been replaced, primarily those rising from the first floor. The stairwell wall panelling mirrors the stair profile, rising with a swan neck at each turn. The south-east wall of the stairwell features a round-arched niche or blocked window opening with painted stone voussoirs, over which sits a lead-lined octagonal rooflight (now blocked).

The front rooms on the first and second floors retain early-18th century panelling, largely original with minor patching. Windows have deep reveals, and the high position of the 19th century margined windows indicates the former greater height of the early-18th century windows. Fireplaces are positioned in the north-east corners, characteristic of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The first-floor front room retains its cornice; its fireplace appears to have been removed. On the left of the north-east wall an early-18th century panelled door marks the location of the former stair from the ground floor commercial unit (removed in 1903). The second-floor front room retains its original chimneypiece with a later 19th century grate. The second-floor rear room retains a plain 19th century fireplace and a cupboard to the left of the fireplace with two doors and shelves (mentioned in the 1854 lease). On the second-floor landing a boarded partition screens a winder stair to two attic rooms, which although replastered retain their original form.

A stair was introduced on the north-west wall in the early 21st century, linking the ground and first floors, and a ladder provides access to the basement. The front basement room retains a kitchen range in its north-east corner, in-built kitchen cupboards on the south-east wall and numerous arched brick niches. A steel beam over this kitchen probably dates from the 1903 alterations.