12, Churchgate Street

No. 12 Churchgate Street is a shop with a flat above, part of a continuous range with Nos. 15 and 16 Whiting Street. The building dates from the 16th century but was raised and fronted in the early 19th century. It features a timber-framed structure with a white brick facade and a slate roof that has a plain brick parapet and a moulded stone cornice.

The exterior has three storeys and a cellar, with a three-window range. The centre window on each storey is blank. The first storey has 12-pane sash windows set in deep reveals with stone sills and flat arches, while the second storey has similar 6-pane sash windows. On the ground storey, there is one similar sash window alongside a small 19th-century shop front with reeded pilasters and a cornice. The entrance door is accessed by two steps, and there is a recessed niche with a foot-scraper beside the door.

Inside, the building is arranged in two bays with an exposed timber ceiling on the ground storey. The main beam, cross-beams, and cornices on the side walls feature multiple roll-mouldings, while the joists have a single roll-moulding. The boarding between the joists is unplastered. There is a blocked fireplace in the west wall with a large plain cambered lintel, and a smaller fireplace above on the first storey has exposed brickwork and a cambered timber lintel, with remnants of painted decoration depicting fruit and flowers. Above this fireplace, a cambered tie-beam has three empty mortices for beams of a former cambered ceiling. The studding along the rear upper wall includes a blocked original window, and the main post of the open truss has an empty mortice for a long brace to the tie-beam. The top storey is an early 19th-century addition, and a cellar below the eastern bay can be accessed via an old winder stair with stone lower treads.