18 and 19, Guildhall Street

The buildings at 18 and 19 Guildhall Street are two separate houses, dating from the early 15th century, now combined for commercial use. They are timber-framed structures, rendered on the exterior, and have plaintiled roofs with a plain wood eaves soffit. The houses project as jetties along the street frontage.

The two-storey building includes a cellar, and an attic to part of the roof. The upper storey has four windows: one is a 12-pane sash, another a 16-pane sash, both in flush cased frames; and two are small-paned, two-light casement windows. The ground storey has shop windows with vertical glazing bars, a recessed shop door, a single vertical glazing bar sash window in a moulded flush cased frame, and a blocked six-panel door. A plain fascia board covers the jetty’s joist ends. There are two gabled rear wings and a dormer window in the rear roof slope.

The cellar of No. 18 is used as offices with rendered walls. A bay below the front has a heavy exposed timber ceiling. A structural break is visible between Nos. 18 and 19, where two frames join. In No. 19, a single bay features a large chamfered main beam with cut-off triangle stops. Above this, a tie-beam has long arched braces and a peg for a missing crown-post, adjacent to a studded partition wall with long tension braces. The rear wallplate is a later replacement. A Tudor brick chimney-stack with a plain cambered timber lintel connects with a two-bay rear wing to the south, which has exposed timbers on both the ground and first storeys and a removed tie-beam from the central truss. A small stair near the stack retains Jacobean splat balusters and two newel posts with open lantern finials.

To the left (No. 18), three bays are divided into a two-bay and a single-bay room on the ground storey, mirroring a single open area above. Main beams have a double ogee moulding, and the single-bay ground storey room at the north end may extend into an adjoining house. On the upper storey, two open trusses have slightly cranked arched braces to chamfered tie-beams and jowled main posts. A small rear wing on the north has lower quality timbering and a clasped purlin roof.