11, High Street

Former inn, late 17th or early 18th century street frontage with a 16th century or earlier range to the rear. Later work includes 19th century features and a late 20th century shop front.

The building is constructed of brick which has been stuccoed, and has a narrow frontage to the High Street. The ground floor features a late 20th century shop front that is not of special interest. The first floor has a pair of 18th century sash windows, and the building is topped with a heavy modillion cornice and parapet. The steeply pitched roof runs east-west with a stack at its western end, which abuts the neighbouring No. 9 High Street; this stack appears to date from the 1851 rebuilding of No. 9.

Running south from this single-room structure is a second range, timber framed with a separate roof and slightly narrower than the frontage, which creates a small courtyard at the rear. The western elevation of No. 11 abuts the neighbouring building, but the eastern elevation of the rear range is visible from the courtyard. This elevation has a jettied first floor containing two casement windows and, on the ground floor, an unusual nine-light window. The window is hand-carved with roll-moulded timber mullions and has pointed-arched timber marginal glazing. Comparable windows exist in other Kent buildings dating to the late 15th century, including Rectory Park, Horsmonden (circa 1500, Grade II) and the Thatched House, Smarden (circa 1480, Grade II), and this example may be of similar antiquity and would benefit from further research. The southern gable end of the rear range is dominated by a broad external chimney, suggesting this part of the building dates to the late medieval period.

The interior retains a significant proportion of late-medieval and later fabric. The earlier rear range has a number of original timbers in situ, including beams and at least one post with a lamb's tongue stop and chamfer, although the roof has been replaced. There may be a late medieval hearth behind the south wall at ground-floor level, though a Victorian fire surround occupies the first floor. A wall cupboard reveals brickwork in this range which appears to be of considerable age.

In the section facing the street, the most significant feature is the impressive late 17th or early 18th century roof. This is a single bay without purlins and with a collar beam. Also in this range is a 19th century staircase with a plain handrail, stick balusters and moulded newel posts with ball finials, providing access to the first floor. A single Victorian fireplace occupies the first-floor front room. The basement contains a number of timber posts, truncated at ground level, which were probably part of an earlier timber-framed building on the site.

The precise origins of No. 11 High Street are unclear, but the fabric suggests that the part facing the street is late 17th or early 18th century, and the rear range is earlier, possibly 15th or 16th century. The building was once a distinct but co-owned part of the King's Head County Hotel, recorded in documents from the 1690s, which also occupied the plot of land to the west of No. 11, now known as No. 9 High Street. An 18th century drawing of Dartford High Street shows the public house with No. 11 as a two-bay building to the east (with two dormer windows which have since been removed) and No. 9 as a four-bay, two-storey building with parapet and modillion cornice, with a glazed shop front running across it. A mid-19th century drawing shows No. 11 with a Victorian shop front and raised parapet. Although both No. 9 and No. 11 were still known as the King's Head at this time, No. 9 had been replaced with a new structure in 1851 which survives relatively unaltered today. The King's Head closed in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and the two premises were converted to shops in separate ownership.