Lions, Including Attached Garden Wall to East

Lions, including attached garden wall to east

A house, later converted to offices. The building has a complex history spanning from the probable 15th century to around 1900. Its origins lie in a three-bay open hall built at right angles to East Street. The northern bay was incorporated into a 16th-century north wing, while the southern bay became part of the chimney bay of a 17th-century south extension, probably heightened in the 18th century. The entire structure was refronted in stucco with incised lines imitating masonry, refenestrated and refurbished in the early 19th century. The west side was separately refronted in brick and tile-hanging with refenestrated windows and partial refurbishment. Around 1900, a south wing was added in Arts and Crafts style.

The north and central wings are timber-framed but refronted in stucco, except for the west front and south wing which have red brick on the ground floor and tile-hanging above. The building is roofed in tiles, steeply pitched with a gablet to the north, hipped to the west, and gabled to the east and south. It features a massive clustered brick chimneystack to the central part and a smaller plain brick chimneystack to the south wing. The plan is irregular, with two storeys and attics, and fenestration varying across the elevations.

The front or north range is stuccoed with incised lines and has a steeply pitched tiled roof with gablet. Each floor has two twelve-pane sashes and a right-side four-panelled door from the 19th century. Attached to the north-east corner is a late 19th-century gabled entrance with end brick piers and a round-headed arch with keystone, behind which are set-back two-panelled doors. An 18th-century section of garden wall, approximately eight feet high in diaper bond with stone coping, is attached here. The east side features a hipped tiled dormer with a nine-paned sash and three early 19th-century sash windows. The central range is of higher elevation, rendered to the north and east fronts. The north front has two hipped dormers, the left with a six-pane sash and the right with a casement. The east side is gable-fronted with carved bargeboards, a twelve-pane sash to the attic, three twelve-pane sashes to the first floor, and French windows to the ground floor. The west front has a hipped roof, refronted in red brick to the ground floor and tile-hung to the first floor, featuring a five-light bay and a massive polygonal bay with leaded lights. The south elevation is also tile-hung, largely obscured by the circa 1900 gabled extension of two bays, which has red brick to the ground floor and tile-hanging above, with leaded light windows and an external chimneystack.

Interior

The original 15th-century three-bay building retains its central bay intact, which contains a moulded dais beam and a sans purlin and crownpost roof with original collar, later heightened at the ridge. The 16th-century extension to the north features jowled posts, later infilled with 18th-century diagonal braces, chamfered beams with lambs tongue stops, tie beams, and wide floorboards. The ceiling was raised at a later date, though the collar rafter roof survives. The 17th-century wing added to the south, now the central range, retains a large fireplace on the ground floor, 17th-century brickwork to the chimneystack, and chamfered beams uncovered during building works to the first-floor east room.

Eighteenth-century alterations include the probable heightening of the roof, a winder staircase added to the attic, a blocked brick fireplace to the central first-floor east room, and lath and plaster partitions. Early 19th-century French windows to the east and west retain folding wooden shutters. The west room has a cornice with acanthus leaf decoration, while the east room displays a wide cornice with a honeysuckle motif, square paterae to the corners, ovolo moulding, and deep skirting board. The circa 1900 front hall features an elliptical ceiling with ribs of interlocking circles and four pilasters, a bolection-moulded fireplace set into a 17th-century opening, panelling, round-headed openings with impost blocks, a staircase, and fireplaces including a wooden fireplace with half-columns and a Delft tiled surround, and a smaller wooden fireplace with a tiled surround.