6 Market Street

An early 17th-century building, originally constructed as a house and workshop, now in use as a restaurant.

Construction and Materials

The building is constructed of brick with some limited areas of flint rubble. The oak-framed roofs are covered in pantiles.

Exterior

The principal elevation faces south onto Market Street. It is two storeys high and three bays wide, with a steeply pitched roof covered in pantiles. The wall is faced in early 19th-century brick. At first floor are three six-over-six wooden sash windows. At ground floor, the left-hand bay is a yard entrance with a depressed, gauged-brick arch. The shopfront occupies the two right-hand bays and is symmetrical, with a central door between four large panes of glass on each side; the left-hand side dates from the 19th century while the right-hand side is a 20th-century addition. There are wooden risers and retractable canopies.

On the north side above the yard entrance, the wall is made of a mixture of 17th-century brick and flint rubble. Above the archway is a blocked window with a moulded pediment.

The rear range extends several bays and is two storeys high with a pitched roof covered in pantiles. Its west elevation faces onto the rear yard and has walls of brick and flint, with a greater amount of flint north of a slight cant in the building line, suggesting a change in construction phasing. A moulded brick string course divides the storeys. At ground floor are two glazed early 21st-century shopfront windows, with two older pine-framed windows to the left-hand side: the smaller has a single light, while the larger is an eight-light mullion and transom window. At first floor are at least three blocked openings, alongside a five-light window with an early 21st-century wooden frame and an older two-light casement.

The north elevation is a plain gable of red brick laid in English bond, with a small amount of galleted flint at the lowest parts of the wall. At ground floor is a 21st-century door set in a 19th-century opening, alongside patches of altered brickwork suggesting repeated changes to earlier doorways. At first floor is a five-light 17th-century mullion window with a heavily moulded weather detail above. At attic level is an altered four-light window. Early 21st-century tie bars run between each storey, and a brick string course divides the first and second floors.

The east elevation of the rear range has been refaced in late 20th-century brick and is structurally connected by steel beams to the neighbouring site. Original 17th-century wooden window frames are visible at first floor (three-light, five-light and two-light). At ground floor level is a single-storey late 20th-century brick-built extension.

The east gable of the Market Street range shows original 17th-century brickwork, an exposed tie beam in the upper part of the gable, a brick string course, and evidence of a former late 19th-century or early 20th-century chimney which has now been truncated.

Interior

The building's historic plan has been altered to support its changing commercial uses. Staircases and circulation were most recently replaced in the 21st century.

At ground floor, some of the historic timber frame is visible. Within the rear range are quarter-round moulded beams with lamb's tongue stops, suggesting a relatively high-status historic function.

At first floor in the Market Street range are two fireplaces with arch-plate grates. In the rear range are wide oak floorboards. The rear of the first floor shows a good deal of the timber frame, including finely chamfered joists with stops, and some unchamfered elements with visible carpenters' marks in the end bays.

The front range roof structure comprises three principal-rafter and slightly cranked collar trusses, between which are two sets of purlins, windbraces and common rafters; the truss in the gable end also has a tiebeam.

The roof over the rear range consists of six principal-rafter and collar trusses, between which are two sets of purlins, windbraces and common rafters.

The two-cell basement has a brick and pamment floor and chamfered ceiling beams with carved stops.