6, LOWER BAXTER STREET (See details for further address information)

This building, located on a corner site at the junction of Abbeygate Street and Lower Baxter Street, is a shop and restaurant with offices in the attic, originally a house and shop. It dates to the late 17th and early 18th centuries, with 19th-century shop fronts added later. The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with blue headers, and has a hipped plaintiled roof with a wide modillion eaves cornice, and gables to Abbeygate Street.

The exterior has two storeys with attics and cellars. To Lower Baxter Street, there is a five-window range, with a 20th-century window at the north end. Smaller-paned sash windows are set within flush cased frames, and feature gauged brickwork over their heads. Four hipped dormers with wooden cornices are present on the Lower Baxter Street elevation, with one dormer in each gable. A recessed panel of brickwork defines the rounded corner, and a plain brick band separates the ground and first storeys. An Edwardian shop front features a corner entry and a heavily moulded fascia, with slender cast-iron columns dividing each window into two lights, and decorative capitals and bases to the end columns. The recessed glazed shop door also has a matching surround. The ground storey to Lower Baxter Street has five windows without glazing bars in original openings, including one three-light window with diminished side-lights, and a three-panel door with a rectangular fanlight, reeded pilasters and patterned cornice. A former stair wing at the north-east corner, now part of an adjoining property, was re-faced with red brick and a matching modillion cornice in approximately 1970.

The interior has had all original partitions removed from the ground and first storeys, and the roof timbers have been renewed. A late 17th-century staircase, featuring barley-sugar twist balusters, has a 20th-century extension; the treads and handrails have been renewed. The extensive cellar beneath the building has 20th-century timber ceilings. The walls are a mixture of flint and stone blocks, with shallow retaining arches of old brick, which may date back to the late medieval period.