34, Churchgate Street

This is an early 18th-century house and shop, with alterations from the 19th century and a core dating back to the 16th century. The building is timber-framed, rendered and lined, with a hipped pantiled roof. It occupies a corner site with a long frontage to both Churchgate Street and Angel Lane.

The front façade, facing Churchgate Street, is two storeys high with a two-window range. The upper windows are later replacements, one being a sash window with a single vertical bar. A raised stucco band sits between the ground and first storeys, largely obscured by the shop fascia. The ground floor features a window divided into three lights by mullions and a transom, a shop door to the right, and a house door to the left, both half-glazed and set within doorcases with plain pilasters. Cast-iron foot-scrapers are positioned in semicircular recesses beside each door. A tall, narrow brick chimney stack rises from the west end.

The long two-storey range along Angel Lane is roughcast and has four upper windows at varying levels, all small-paned sash windows within flush cased frames. The ground floor windows are a mixture, including an old fixed, small-paned former shop window. A small, single-storey brick extension at the north end contains an original brick oven.

Inside, the cellars feature flint rubble walling, heavy timber ceilings, and a timber-framed partition wall. An arched recess at the rear reveals the remains of a well. The shop and the room above it retain early 18th-century panelling on the walls and corner fireplaces with bolection-moulded surrounds. A large rear upper room boasts full-height bolection-moulded panelling and a fireplace surround, along with a moulded plaster cornice. The panel above the fireplace holds an 18th-century oil painting depicting a hunting scene. A fine early 18th-century dog-leg staircase features barley-sugar-twist balusters, square newels, moulded handrails, closed strings and a panelled dado. The roof over the main part of the building was replaced in the 19th century, raised at that time.

A shared entrance door on the west side of the property leads into a narrow passage with a 16th-century multiple-moulded main beam and a trimmer beam extending into the adjacent property at No. 33. A room above is at a lower level compared to the rest of the upper storey, while a rear upper room of No. 33 is accessible only from the upper storey of No. 34. The large rear oven, originally used for firing by faggot, was later converted to coal, and retains its original cast-iron doors and fittings. A cast-iron panel, formerly part of the oven, is now located in the main upper room. It displays a crown, an eight-pointed star, and the ornate letters “GR” within a roundel, with “111” above.