St Ann's House, 14, 16 and 18 St Ann's Street, and attached garden wall to the rear

St Ann's House at 14, 16 and 18 St Ann's Street is an early 17th-century house that was enlarged and modernised in the late 18th or 19th century. It comprises red brick laid in various bonds with a rendered and colourwashed façade and slate-clad roofs. An attached garden wall stands to the rear.

The building faces east onto St Ann's Street, set back behind a forecourt. It has an approximately E-shaped plan consisting of a main east range with a long north cross wing and a shorter south wing. Between these wings is a staircase projection.

Exterior

The rendered east façade is Classical in style with three storeys divided into nine bays. The central bay breaks forward as an elaborated porch tower with rusticated corners, matching the rusticated corners of the main façade. The porch tower contains a 20th-century six-panel door within a pedimented doorcase featuring a Doric frieze and flanking pilasters on bases. The first floor is lit by a Venetian window, above which is a tripartite sash. The remaining fenestration consists mainly of six-over-six pane sash windows with slender glazing bars set within plain surrounds. The ground-floor window to the left of the porch tower dates to the late 20th century when it replaced a door. The last two bays on the ground floor contain a six-light mullioned and transomed casement with leaded lights and some stained glass. The three-over-three pane sashes on the second floor are false windows forming part of the parapet with a modillion eaves cornice which conceals the roof slope with dormers behind.

The rendered left return is blind. The right return is of exposed brick laid in Flemish garden wall bond. It has two small windows in the gable head either side of the rendered chimney stack, and on the right-hand side on the ground floor a large window with leaded lights and stained glass has been inserted in a concrete surround.

The north wall of the long two-storey north wing features a plain tiled offset to the first floor. Roughly central to the wing is a large rebuilt chimney stack rising through the north slope, flanked by hipped dormers wholly within the roof space. The brickwork appears to be of several phases and shows signs of much repair and patching using peg tiles and limestone. At first-floor level towards the right are the remains of two brick arches to windows, now blocked. The irregular fenestration is not original, nor are the three doors. A change in the brickwork in the end bay indicates it was added in the late 18th or early 19th century during the house's modernisation. The west gable end has an off-centre chimney projection at first-floor level, although the stack has been removed and a dormer window inserted in the roof. The brickwork shows signs of much repair, and on the left-hand side retains the scar of a former lean-to projection where a door has later been inserted. Above is a sash window under a rebuilt gauged brick arch. The south elevation of the north wing, refaced in the late 18th or early 19th century, has some blocked and altered openings. The irregular fenestration consists mostly of sash windows of varying sizes under gauged brick arches, some rebuilt, with two large sashes in the last two bays that are almost full-height.

At right angles to this is the west (rear) elevation of the main range which has an off-centre staircase projection with tumbled-in brickwork along the gable verges. It is lit on the west side by a round-arched sash window, and has a later single-storey brick extension under a pitched roof extending westwards. To the left of the staircase projection is a window and a double-leaf door with lower fielded panels and upper glazed panels within a pedimented doorcase. The two sash windows above have gauged brick arches. To the right of the staircase projection is a narrower bay with a blocked arched opening and two small windows above.

The three-storey north elevation of the south wing has one window on the left-hand side of the ground floor, and the remains of two blocked openings with pointed brick arches. The brickwork on the west gable end shows different phasing between the ground floor and the upper floors. It has a central projecting external chimney flanked by six-over-six pane sash windows under gauged brick arches at first-floor level, with a small window above on the left-hand side. To the left of the chimney on the ground floor is a round-arched recess with a 20th-century door, and to the right another 20th-century door. The south elevation of the south wing is rendered and has irregular fenestration. Adjoining the end of the south wing are the remains of former outbuildings, now roofless.

Interior

The main east range retains many historic fixtures and fittings including panelled window shutters, deeply recessed doorcases with panelled soffits and jambs, and dentilled cornices enriched with egg-and-dart. The principal staircase has been replaced but a subsidiary staircase survives in the south end of the house, probably dating to the late 18th or early 19th-century remodelling, which has stick balusters supporting scrolled handrails. It was not possible to inspect the south room but this is said to retain a marble fireplace, an ornate cornice, and barley-sugar internal window hoods. The north room on the first floor has built-in panelled cupboards with cockshead hinges.

The principal areas of interest are the five rooms in the east range with Jacobean panelling. It is probable that the panelling was not original to the house as the rooms were widened in the late 18th or early 19th century, but as panelling was regarded as movable furniture it was not unusual for it to be reinstated from elsewhere. In the northernmost room the square panelling is divided by reeded pilaster strips with egg-and-dart enriched capitals and square panels filled with strapwork above. The elaborately detailed chimneypiece is flanked by reeded pilaster strips and has an overmantel with two round-arched panels divided by reeded columns on vase-like plinths, and an arcaded frieze. The ceiling has raised plasterwork in a geometric design with pendants at the intersections of the ribs and floral detailing at their termination. The soffits of the beams are decorated with strapwork and the frieze with a foliate pattern. The plasterwork is relatively crisp and the ceiling may not therefore date to the Jacobean period. The adjoining room to the south has simpler panelling, and the mantelpiece is a less elaborate replica version of that in the north room, although it has a cast iron fireback of 1680.

On the first floor of the east range, the room to the right of the porch tower has very ornate panelling divided by square pilasters with Ionic capitals and plinths decorated with an arch resting on double columns. The dentilled frieze is divided into panels by scrolled brackets. The elaborate chimneypiece has a lugged marble fireplace flanked by pairs of columns resting on plinths decorated with an arch resting on double columns. These support the overmantel which is decorated with panels of strapwork and square-within-a-square design. The room to the left of the porch tower has been subdivided with a partition wall but retains the square panelling embellished with reeded pilasters surmounted by composite capitals. It was not possible to inspect the adjoining room which occupies the south end of the building but this also has Jacobean panelling, although it is not fitted together properly.

In the north wing, the west room on the ground floor has modern replica panelling but it was formerly the kitchen and retains the large projection where the range was situated and a ceiling beam with a large hook. In the north-west corner of the room there is a curious oriel window containing coats of arms in stained glass, over which is a four-centred arch oak lintel with carved spandrels, of possible Tudor date. On the first floor there are three 19th-century fireplaces: one has a hobgrate, another has a surround with corner blocks bearing a mask, and another has turquoise Art Nouveau tiles.

Garden Wall

The red brick boundary walls survive, enclosing the rear garden on the north and south sides. On the inner face of the south wall are five large four-centred arches, bricked up. It has been suggested that these resemble the arcaded faces of the basement walls of the 16th or 17th-century warehouses along King Street, and may once have formed part of such a structure.