18, Abbeygate Street

No. 18 Abbeygate Street is a shop that was formerly a house and shop, likely originally part of a larger house with a hall range attached. The building has an early 16th-century core and an early 19th-century front. It is timber-framed and rendered, topped with a slate roof that features a wooden eaves cornice and a plaster frieze decorated with acanthus leaves.

The exterior consists of three storeys and a cellar, with a two-window range. The second storey has sashes with heavy glazing bars, while the first storey has sashes with clear glass, all set in cased frames. The shop front is from the 20th century.

Inside, the cellar is small and lined with brick and flint, incorporating some reused stone blocks. The original part of the building is arranged in two bays, positioned sideways to the street and jettied at the first-floor level, although this has been underbuilt. The visible studs are wide and closely spaced, and there was once a stud partition between the two bays. The ground storey has a high ceiling, with only the main ceiling beams and the ends of the joists from the jetty exposed. The rear wall features a long shutter-slide and the housings for a five-light diamond-mullioned window. A round Jacobean wooden column, possibly from a 17th-century porch, is embedded near the front of the west wall, though it is likely not in its original position. Most of the joists on the first storey are replacements, and the top storey is a 19th-century addition with a shallow-pitched roof. A rear range is constructed of random brick and flint. All features that were exposed during restoration in the early 1990s have since been covered again.