Corner House Lenham Greengrocers Rebecca'S Antiques And Furnishings

Corner House, Rebecca's Antiques and Furnishings, Lenham Greengrocers, and No. 7

A timber-framed house and shop complex on the north side of The Square, Lenham, incorporating Faversham Road Nos. 2 and 4. The ground floor of the north end of the Faversham Road range was originally stables, now converted to houses and shops.

The building is of mixed date. The right cross-wing (No. 7) dates to the early-to-mid 15th century, while the rest of the building dates to the mid-to-late 15th century, with significant alterations made in the late 16th, 18th and 19th centuries. The construction is timber-framed, partly plastered and partly with plaster infilling, under a plain tile roof.

The right cross-wing is storeyed and 2 timber-framed bays deep, possibly with a shop originally to the right side of the ground floor. The rest of the building is Wealden in type, built against the cross-wing and separately framed, consisting of 2 unequal bays with a storeyed bay at the left end on the corner. A rear range to the left fronts Faversham Road and comprises 3 or 4 bays with a corridor down the right (rear) side. An 18th-century stair turret occupies the angle between the two ranges. The building is 2 storeys with a cellar.

The elevation to The Square features a wide, deeply jettied end bay with the jetty returned along the side elevation on a moulded dragon post. The right cross-wing is much narrower, with an underbuilt jetty and jettied eaves with inner and outer wall-plates, broadly-spaced studs and 2 tension braces. The left bay of the hall is close-studded on the first floor; the right bay has a horizontal rail halfway up the first floor. The inner wall-plate is slightly lower than the flying wall-plate, with a curved brace to the latter on the left side and a solid bracket beneath the central tie-beam. The roof is hipped to the left with a gablet returning along the left-side elevation, and hipped at the junction with the cross-wing to the right. The cross-wing roof is hipped to The Square, projecting slightly beyond the rest of the range, also with a gablet. A small red brick stack stands at the left end.

Fenestration is irregular: a 3-light casement to the left bay, a 20th-century 3-light casement to the left bay of the hall, and a 4-light ovolo-moulded mullion window to the cross-wing. The ground floor has a 19th-century canted bay window to the left bay. The ground floor of the hall is canopied out to the same plane as the jetties, with 2 19th-century shop bay windows; that to the left has shaped brackets beneath, both over weatherboarding. A 19th-century baby window sits beneath the right jetty with vertical wooden cellar hatches below. A 4-centred arched door-head with hollow spandrels at the right end of the left, jettied bay contains a half-glazed and panelled door. A half-glazed and panelled door serves the left end of the right bay of the hall. A boarded door opens from the left end of the cross-wing.

The elevation to Faversham Road features a bracketed jetty with moulded fascia board, underbuilt at the left end in painted brick. The right end bay has broadly-spaced studs with ogee tension braces. The roof is hipped with a gablet to the left. A large brick stack rises through the front slope of the roof at the junction with the range to The Square, with a smaller brick stack at the left end. Three first-floor casements provide irregular fenestration. Traces of earlier windows survive, including a partially blocked 8-light ovolo-moulded mullion window towards the centre of the first floor. Boarded doors with flat bracketed hoods serve No. 2 to the left of centre and No. 4 at the left end. A weatherboarded lean-to extends from the left end.

The interior contains significant medieval fabric. The right cross-wing has a moulded crown-post and a fragment of diamond mullion in the front elevation. Moulded crown-posts appear in the hall and rear range; the rear range has a cambered, hollow-chamfered tie-beam. A 4-centred arched door-head in a partition at the left end of the hall survives. Between the front and rear ranges, an inserted stack contains 2 late 16th-century and one early 17th-century moulded stone fireplace surrounds. Substantial remains of painted plaster panelling with Latin verse and fleur-de-lys in reddish ochre survive in the front first-floor room of the rear range; other panels are reported to have been covered over. Exposed timber framing is visible throughout. Historical records note the presence, upstairs in Corner House, of an iron door, now papered over, bearing a Latin inscription.