Goudhurst House and Newsagent's Shop

Goudhurst House and Newsagent's shop is an 18th-century building that originally comprised a house and newsagent’s shop. It is timber framed and covered with tile hanging, with red brick and mathematical tiles to the return elevations. The roof is tiled, with a gambrel shape and a parapet, incorporating two flat-roofed dormers and stacks to the rear left and right. The rear right end of the roof has been projected and truncated. The building has a plinth and two storeys with an attic.

Originally, the windows were regularly spaced. The left and right sides feature three-light mullioned and transomed wooden casements, while the first floor has a two-light window in the center. The ground floor has a three-light casement on the left and a late 19th-century shop front with plate glass windows and double half-glazed doors on the right, creating canted bays. A central half-glazed door is topped with a traceried semicircular fanlight and a pediment-shaped hood. A two-storey, hipped rear wing extends from the main building.

Historically, the building served as a Poor House, managed by “General” George Street, known for organizing the resistance against the Hawkhurst Smuggling Gang’s attack on Goudhurst in 1747.