64, Southgate Street

No. 64 Southgate Street is a former public house known as The Sword in Hand, dating from the mid-17th century with late 18th-century additions. The building was faced in brick around 1910 and underwent partial rebuilding or additions in 1935. It features a timber-framed structure, with a red brick front and a rendered upper storey, complemented by plain brick pilasters. The apex of the south gable is tile-hung, and the building has a plaintiled roof with a wide eaves overhang and mutules on the soffit. The rear extensions are partly constructed from kidney flint and brick.

The property has one original internal chimney stack and two later end stacks, all with plain red brick shafts. It is designed on a two-cell lobby-entrance plan and stands two storeys high with cellars. The exterior includes a three-window range with 12-pane sashes on the upper storey and tripartite sashes on the ground storey, featuring a central 16-pane sash, all set in flush cased frames. There are two matching six-panel entrance doors with wood surrounds and flat cornice hoods supported by shaped brackets. The ground-storey windows and doors are topped with segmental brick arches that have keystones.

Inside, the cellar is partly brick vaulted with rendered walls over flint, while the south end and the room above it were reconstructed in 1935. An internal chimney stack has two back-to-back hearths on each storey; the ground storey hearths have been significantly altered, while those on the upper storey are closer to their original form. The stack was tunneled through to provide access to the rear when a parlour and parlour chamber were added in the late 18th century, as documented. The ground storey rooms on either side of the stack feature chamfered main beams with scroll stops. Apart from the main posts, which have prominent jowls, much of the front framing has been removed. A rear extension includes a straight flight of early 19th-century stairs with stick balusters. The roof of the front range has clasped purlins.