6a and 7, St Gregorys Alley

House converted to a shop and offices in the early 20th century. The building is early 19th century in date but stands over a mid-15th century undercroft.

The building is constructed of gault brick laid in Flemish bond under a gabled roof clad with pantiles. The plan is L-shaped with a rear cross wing to the south enclosing a small rear yard accessed only from the ground-floor shop at No. 6A. This L-plan probably directly survives from the mid-15th century house that originally stood on the site, with a barrel-vaulted brick undercroft beneath the front range running parallel to the street.

The east elevation facing St. Gregory's Alley is of three storeys in two window bays, with the ground floor showing the disposition of a shop to ground level and offices on the two storeys above. To the right is a stuccoed and rusticated brick architrave to the doorway, with a half-glazed door under a plain semi-circular overlight, leading to an entrance hallway and stairs to the upper floors. To the left is an early 20th century shop display window with a plate-glass window to the left of the recessed half-glazed door and above is a canopy box with scrolled end projections. The first floor is lit through two 2/2 unhorned early 19th century sash windows with stone sills and painted gauged skewback arches, and the second floor by two two-light casements with similar sills and arches. There is a projecting timber cornice and an internal gable end stack to the north shared with the adjacent building (No. 8). The rear elevations have been rendered and fitted with replacement windows except for the ground-floor 2/2 horned sash to the cross wing.

The undercroft is reached from a manhole cover in the rear yard covering an access shute. It is built of plastered brick laid mainly in stretcher bond, with covering plaster surviving almost intact except for small areas in the vault and end walls. The structure measures approximately five metres long north to south, three metres wide east to west, and approximately two and a half metres to the apex of the pointed barrel vault which runs parallel to the street. In each of the north and south walls is an arched recess for the storage of barrels. In the north-west corner is a raking 18th century brick buttress which probably marks the site of a blocked internal access to the house above. In the east wall is a flight of seven brick steps with timber treads following a slightly curved course up to the pavement in front of the building, though the opening to the street is now blocked.

The ground floor consists of a shop to the south using both rooms and the rear wing as a single space. The entrance doorway to the north leads to a plain hallway altered in the late 20th century, which leads to a simple winder staircase at the west end, with square newel posts and a boarded balustrade continuing to the top storey. The two rooms to each floor of the street range have been knocked into open office spaces in the 20th century and decorated accordingly, although several four-panelled 19th century doors remain. The first-floor room has the marks of a blocked doorway which formerly opened into the adjoining No. 6 St. Gregory's Alley.

The building is designated particularly, but not exclusively, because of the undercroft, which forms part of an important collection of undercrofts within the city walls. The building has group value with St. Gregory's Church (listed Grade I) and Nos. 4, 5 and 6 St. Gregory's Alley (listed Grade II).