68, Whiting Street

This is a house dating from the early 16th century and the 18th century. It is timber-framed and now rendered, with a parapet and a modillion cornice. It has a tiled roof.

The exterior has two storeys and attics. There is one window on each storey: a tripartite sash window to the upper storey with a 12-pane central light. A lead-covered canted bay to the ground storey has fluted pilasters and a cornice, with a central 12-pane window and two 8-pane side windows. The recessed entrance door has the top two panels glazed and a fanlight with radiating glazing bars, within a doorcase featuring panelled reveals, pilasters and an open pediment. There is one segmental-headed dormer window with a 2-light window. A long rear wing extends from the main body of the house.

Inside, there is no cellar. The front range is in two-and-a-half bays, with a partition wall that formerly separated off the half bay. The main ceiling has heavy roll-moulded cross-beams carved on the sides and soffit, featuring folded-leaf motifs. The joists have double ogee mouldings and stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The house was originally jettied along the street frontage. The chimney-stack on the rear wall has a re-set timber lintel cut down in size, with multiple mouldings, a leaf motif in the cambered top, and simulated window tracery. The brickwork here is renewed and resited. This stack connects with the long rear wing, though no fireplace remains on the ground storey. The upper rear fireplace has a moulded, cambered lintel with leaf motif and original brickwork with remains of red ochre colouring and lining. The front upper room has a main beam with a leaf motif, and an applied fascia in the same style along the rear wall. The rear wing has a false ceiling to the ground storey, but a trap door reveals a heavy chamfered main beam and plain unchamfered joists. The roof has pegged original rafters. This wing is parallel to, and slightly post-dates, the rear wing of No.67, and through a gap in the framing the side wall of No.67 is visible, displaying original comb pargeting.