37 and 39 London Street

Pair of townhouses, built in the mid- to late C18, with number 39 incorporating part of an earlier building. The ground floor was converted to commercial use during the early C19 and subsequently rebuilt during the late C20. The upper floors were converted to office use during the late C20.

MATERIALS: number 37 is of red brick with a plain tile roof, while number 39 is of silver-grey brick with red brick dressings with a plain tile roof. The two buildings share a late-C20 shopfront with brown brick stall risers and timber-framed glazing.

EXTERIOR: number 37 is of three storeys across three bays onto London Street, under a pitched roof with a hipped roof to the rear range to the east. The building shares a ground-floor shopfront of around the 1960s with number 35 to the north and number 39 to the south. The first and second floors are of red brick laid in header bond. Each of the upper floors has three, six-over-six, timber sash windows recessed into the brickwork, with segmental-arched heads. Between the two floors is a brick plat band and above the second-floor windows is a painted, dentil cornice, possibly of stucco. Above the cornice is a stone-coped, brick parapet. At the northern end of the elevation is a historic cast iron downpipe and hopper. There are three, square, metal pattress plates, one on the first floor and two on the second floor. The rear elevation of the C18 front range is largely concealed by the later extension. There appears to be a hipped dormer to the northern half of the elevation. A brick chimney stack rises through the ridge of the rear range. The late-C20 extension to the rear (east) fills the entire building plot. It is single-storey and has a green roof.

Number 39 is also of three storeys across three bays, with a late-C20 shopfront contiguous with number 37, and three timber sash windows on the first and second floors with a brick string in between and a painted, dentil cornice and brick parapet above. In contrast to number 37, the upper floors are of silver grey brick with red brick window dressings and columns of red brickwork up each side of the elevation. The window heads are flat arches in gauged brickwork. The first-floor windows have six-over-six glazing while on the second floor, the two outer windows have three-over-six glazing and the central window has three-over-nine glazing. The building has an unusual roof form, with three parallel pitches orientated north-south, forming two valleys, with hipped elements at either end of the two valleys. The easternmost roof slope continues down to the first floor and has a hipped-roof dormer. To the rear (east) is a long, three-storey, C20 extension which is rendered externally and has a flat roof. Attached to the east is a single-storey, brick building with a slate roof, possibly of the late C19 or early C20.