79, Guildhall Street

House, now offices and flats, dating from the 18th century with a partly 12th-century core. The building is timber-framed above a plinth of stone blocks, with roughcast rendering. It has a slate roof with a moulded wooden eaves cornice. The front has two storeys, attics, and a cellar, and includes two wings at the rear. The front facade has a five-window range: 12-pane sashes to the first storey, and ground-floor windows without glazing bars, all set within heavy flush-cased frames. A central six-panel door is accessed via a doorcase with panelled pilasters and a cornice, and features a semicircular fanlight with radial glazing bars.

The cellar beneath the northern half of the front contains 18th and 19th-century brick walls almost entirely to the south and east, with a west wall of mixed flint rubble and recesses. A 15th or 16th-century bridging beam spans the ceiling, likely intended to rest upon supporting piers, with 18th and 19th-century joists. A thick wall faced with ashlar blocks extends across the ground storey from north to south, having a roll-moulded Norman doorway at the back of the present cross-entry, complete with nook shafts with volute capitals. Further south on this wall is a narrow doorway with a chamfered pointed arch, likely dating from the late 12th century. A low, round-headed window with a chamfered arch, now boarded over, is mid-way along the same wall. This wall probably extends the full length of the building and may have a return wall on the north between numbers 79 and 80. Inside the front entrance, two pairs of tall timber columns with matching 'Norman' capitals are spaced along the cross-entry. A 17th-century rear wing on the south has a heavy main beam with a large chamfer, a lambstongue stop with quirk, and has been extended into a later bay. A rear wing on the north is now part of adjoining premises and lacks original features. Connecting the two wings is a flat-roofed extension containing a staircase with a ramped handrail, concealing its balusters beneath boarding.