5 And 6, Mermaid Street

House, subdivided into two properties at one time. This is a 15th-century front range with a 17th-century inserted floor and a 16th-century rear wing, restored in the 1920s. The building is timber-framed with plaster infill, brick to the east wall and part of the ground floor of the rear wing. It has a tiled roof half-hipped to the east with a brick chimneystack. Two storeys and attics with irregular fenestration of early 20th-century metal casements with leaded lights.

The plan shows a front range of two bays of a continuous jetty house, possibly originally an open hall, which may have extended further to the east or west, with a later L-wing to the south west.

The north or street front has a continuous jetty which is close-studded to the first floor. The ground floor is also close-studded with an imported curved beam and upright post to the left-hand side. There is a gabled early 20th-century dormer. The first floor has two three-light and a single light casement, while the ground floor has one two-light and one four-light large mullioned and transomed casement. A wooden double door of four deep panels on each side dates from the early 18th century and is imported. Part of an ornamental pump has been reused as a water spout. The east elevation is brick to the top of the first floor, with the attic having a timber-framed wall of very thin scantling. The rear or south elevation also has close-studding to the first floor, is plastered, and has a three-light casement window. The south west wing has a timber-framed upper floor with three casements and a part brick, part timber-framed ground floor. Part of an ornamental lead pump has been reused as a water spout.

The ground floor north room has a ceiling with 17th-century axial beams and floor joists and a south partition wall. There is an open fireplace to the east with a wooden bressumer of early 18th-century date, but with built-in cupboards on either side which are architectural salvage. A wooden cupboard in the south western corner appears to be of French 18th-century date. The south ground floor room of the main range has 17th-century axial beams and floor joists. The lounge in the rear wing has a replaced axial beam but retains some of the original wall frame, including a curved brace to the western wall. The open fireplace has a 16th-century wooden bressumer, though the brickwork is early 20th-century. Access to the upper floor is by a half-winder staircase with introduced elaborate turned balusters. The first floor eastern bedroom has two substantial tie beams with jowled posts, one with curved tension braces. The cupboards with plank doors were installed in the early 20th century. The western bedroom has curved braces to the western wall. The upper floor of the rear wing has been restored with a series of bolted knees added to the frame of the west wall. Some of the frame is of thin scantling, and a fireplace to the south has a wooden bressumer but early 20th-century brickwork. The attic storey of the front range has two tall square section crownposts with head braces, collar beams and sans-purlin rafters.

This is a 15th-century continuous jetty building of two bays, perhaps originally with an open hall, with a 17th-century inserted floor and a 16th-century rear wing. In the 18th century it was underbuilt on the ground floor to provide more room and refronted in brickwork, as shown in a photograph of circa 1900. In the 1920s the owner of the Mermaid Inn opposite, Mr Blythe, purchased this building and removed the brick front to expose the timber-framing. He repaired the building with old timbers from elsewhere, imported old fittings and replaced all windows with metal-framed casements with leaded lights. These works had been completed by 1937 as recorded in the Victoria County History Volume IX published that year. The building is shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map, and on the 1904 and 1919 editions the building appears to be divided into two properties. The building forms part of a group of listed buildings within the Rye Conservation area.