65, High Street

This is a house, originally probably dating from the late 16th century, with an addition from the 17th century. Later alterations occurred in the early to mid-19th century and it was restored around 1953. The building was likely an inn at one time, and is now a Chinese restaurant.

It is timber-framed, with some original wattle and daub infill replaced by brick. The brickwork on the west and south elevations incorporates 16th-century bricks salvaged from Palace Gate. The ground floor is brick, and the second floor is tile-hung. The front range has a hipped Welsh slate roof, while the rear wing has a plain tile roof. Brick stacks are present.

The front range consists of three storeys and three bays. It was originally jettied on both the west and south elevations. A two-storey, two-bay wing extends to the rear right. The westernmost bay of the rear wing was probably originally jettied. Windows are mostly 20th-century leaded metal casements with mullions, and the front range has transoms on the ground floor. A plinth with a moulded top is also present.

The main elevation facing the High Street has a central recessed porch with 20th-century brick steps, a wooden door, and a moulded architrave. A large original wall-post is on the right and a 20th-century post on the left, with curved brackets supporting the moulded jetty bressumer. A three-light window and an old lead downpipe are on the left, and a five-light window on the right. The first-floor timber framing is close-studded with ogee braces. Windows of two, three, and four lights are found on the first and second floors, with the second-floor windows projecting under an oversailing roof with end stacks. The right return elevation has a 20th-century door and architrave on the right and a two-light window to the left, above which is late 19th or early 20th-century decorative bargeboarding to the gable. The rear wing has close-studded timber framing to the left bay and square-panelled framing with arched braces to the right bay. Windows have two, four, and five lights on the ground floor, and three and four lights above.

The rear of the building shows exposed arch-braced timber framing and three-light windows. The return of the wing also showcases exposed rafter feet and small-pane windows, one of which retains old glass. A stair tower at the rear of the front range has a two-light small-pane window in a flush wooden architrave, topped with a hipped roof. A mid-20th-century brick wing is on the right, linked by a 20th-century flat-roofed addition.

The ground-floor interior features a massive dragon beam and chamfered spine-beams supporting wide joists, large-scantling wall-posts, and mortices in the beams suggesting former partitions and end walls. Early to mid-19th-century features include a moulded archivolt on the ground floor, a curving staircase with stick balusters and a moulded handrail, and a panelled corner cupboard with a dentilled cornice at the head of the stair. The wing's roof has diagonally-set purlins and coupled rafters.

The early to mid-19th-century alterations incorporated the addition of a storey to the front, a stucco render, and a classical-style porch. The building was significant in the late 16th-century High Street and retains much of its original character.