12, Eastgate Street

No. 12 Eastgate Street is a house that was formerly used as a shop. It dates back to the 16th century, with early 18th-century alterations and an early 19th-century front. The building is timber-framed and has a roughcast-rendered exterior, topped with a plaintiled roof.

The house has two storeys and attics, structured in four bays. The front features a three-window range with 9-pane sashes set in flush cased frames. On the ground floor, there are two fixed early 19th-century 6-pane shop windows flanking a 20th-century window that replaced the former shop door. The entrance door is located at one end and has six flush panels, with the top two being glazed. It is framed by a wooden surround topped with a lead-covered gabled hood supported by shaped brackets.

Inside, the basic frame is substantial, featuring heavy chamfered cross-beams, posts with long jowls, and wide studding that is exposed along the east wall. Later partitions are much flimsier, with straight braces bisecting narrow studs. The chimney stack includes an open fireplace with a damaged timber lintel on its east side and lacks a structural chimney bay, suggesting it may have replaced a smoke-bay. To the east of the stack, a room originally in two long bays has been divided into two; the dividing partition now has its studding exposed with the infill removed. A later partition in the room above has been treated similarly. The joists in the ground-floor rooms are set on edge, with some clearly being replacements. The upper ceilings appear to be later additions. The attics are boarded, and the roof consists of six bays with only cambered collars exposed.