Part Of Osbourne Smith'S Wax Museum

Part of Osborne Smith's Wax Museum

This building on Brading High Street was originally constructed in the early 16th century and has been substantially restored in the 20th century. It is timber-framed with close-studded front elevation featuring herringbone brick infill, now colour-washed. The side and rear elevations are of stone rubble. The building is roofed in thatch.

The structure stands two storeys with attics, comprising two bays with overhanging gables on brackets, and a further bay set back to the right. A large stepped stone chimney stack rises on the left-hand side. The first floor has two three-light mullioned windows with leaded lights, the right-hand window retaining original wooden mullions. A roll-moulded bressumer separates the floors. The ground floor has two four-light mullioned windows with leaded lights and pilasters topped with carved details. The doorcase features spandrels and a two-centred arch with mouldings. On the right-hand side of the first floor are square wooden mullions. The ground floor also has a cambered former carriage entrance, now glazed.

Internally, the ground floor left-side room contains an early 16th-century roll-moulded spine beam with joists, a wooden bressumer, herringbone brick to the fireplace and fireback, and flagstone flooring. The close-studded walls display diagonal braces. The roof structure exhibits upper cruck construction with collar beam and some arched tension braces, with no ridge piece but through purlins present.

The building stands on an ancient site with traces of Anglo-Saxon occupation. Historically it served as the rectory, then as the town house of the Oglander family, subsequently as an inn called The Crown in the 17th century, and later as two cottages. In 1640, when operating as The Crown Inn, the French spy Louis de Rochefort was murdered here. It is reputedly the only close-studded town house on the Isle of Wight. A modern extension to the rear, including a Chamber of Horrors, is of no special interest.