3-7, West Street

3-7 West Street, Harrow-on-the-Hill, is a row of three cottages set within the framework of a late medieval hall house. The building dates from around 1475 to 1525, with alterations made in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. It is constructed of red brick to the front and rear, with a tiled roof and a timber frame predominantly of elm.

The building's plan comprises three houses inserted into what was originally a five-bay house; numbers 3 and 5 each occupy a single bay, while number 7 incorporates two bays. The endmost bay to the southwest has been demolished. Rear extensions are present to numbers 3 and 5.

The exterior of number 3 (now a tea shop) features a pair of ground-floor windows with 2/2-pane sashes to the right of the entrance door, and a single window to the first floor that rises through the eaves, featuring a Gothic Revival dormer with a bargeboard dating from around 1870. Number 5 retains an early to mid-19th century tripartite shop front to the left of its door, with large panes of plate glass, and a single 2/2-pane window to the first floor. Number 7 has three 6/3-pane sash windows to the right of the door. Soldier courses and renewed brickwork indicate a 20th-century alteration, likely replacing an earlier shop front. Earlier brickwork to the first floor shows two 16-pane windows with curved heads. A large brick chimneystack is visible on number 7.

The interior has been considerably altered from its medieval origins, but significant portions of the timber frame survive at upper levels. The frame, mostly of elm with some oak, is divided by cross frames into four bays, now forming the party walls of the terraced row. The roof is a clasped purlin construction, with some replaced tenoned purlins. The roof space of number 7 retains evidence of smoke-blackening in the former eastern half of an open double-height hall; the cross frame is blackened on the western side but clean on the east, suggesting it was formerly a closed partition.

Historically, the building was likely built as a merchant’s house and may have been used for associated functions alongside residential purposes, drawing comparison to Paycocke’s House at Coggeshall, Essex. Its size and central location suggest it was a substantial house, unusually built parallel with the street rather than at a right angle. Despite extensive alterations, it represents a significant survival of Harrow’s medieval development.