Cloudesley House, With Walls Attached At Rear

Cloudesley House is a late 18th-century house, originally built as a bank, situated on Rochester High Street. It is a three-story, three-bay structure constructed of Flemish bond brick, with a painted brick facade. The roof is covered in Kent tiles. The ground floor features three arched openings with moulded impost blocks, containing recessed round-headed sashes with 12 panes of glass and glazing bars. A recessed two-leaf panel door with a moulded return and soffit sits centrally, topped by a fanlight with lead glazing bars. A plat band separates the ground and first floors, above which are three first-floor windows with 10 panes each, and three second-floor windows with 12 panes, all featuring glazing bars and flat rubbed brick arches. Cast-iron balconies are attached to the first-floor windows. Applique plaster swags hang from two roundels that originally displayed the “Phoenix Printing Office” legend. The projecting attic cornice is topped by a tripartite parapet pierced with rows of balusters. A central hipped dormer with a moulded gable is present. The return elevation to The Post Alley has two arched half-landing sashes with glazing bars. A side entrance features a two-panel door with a fanlight and a decorated upper architrave. A flat-roofed former banking hall extension, dating to circa 1800, is located at the rear, with three sashes and thin cast-iron glazing bar divisions under flat rubbed brick arches. The rear first and second floor elevation of the main house is distinguished by two 16-pane sashes with glazing bars, also under flat rubbed brick arches. A downpipe with a lead hopper is dated 1790.

The interior includes a dogleg staircase with thin balusters, with every third baluster of cast-iron, a ramped handrail, and a first-floor landing featuring a plaster frieze and dado rail. The front room showcases a good wooden architrave door surround with rondels, and walnut-stained six-panel raised and fielded doors. A stripped fireplace displays grapes and swags in the frieze. A room at the rear has a wooden dado rail, door architrave, and a plaster cornice with urns and swags. The second-floor landing has anthemion brackets. All plasterwork is of high quality. The ground floor plan and details were replaced, with the exception of the side entrance and staircase. A handbill from 1790 advertising the Phoenix Printing Office and the Rochester and Chatham and Strood bank indicates that the facade appeared as it does today at that time.