149-153, HIGH STREET (See details for further address information)

TQ 2060 HIGH STREET (South side) 861/30/53 Numbers 149-153 (Odd)

10.04.1954 II*

Includes: Number 147 HIGH STREET Assembly Rooms, then shops and tenements, later offices. Probably c1692 for Randolph Ashenhurst and Michael Cope; considerably altered first half C18 and subsequently and with major C20 re-fittings. Small red-brown bricks in Flemish bond with clunch quoins. Hipped plain tile roofs; one surviving brick stack. Front range possibly free-standing originally with other ranges added to it to form rectangular plan with central courtyard; carriage access to courtyard through east and west ranges; courtyard subsequently roofed over. 2 storeys with attic and partial basement. North elevation: 4,3,4 bays with central pedimented break. Plinth. C20 shop fronts to ground floor. Unhorned 12-pane sash windows, those to left of centre in reveals, the rest with exposed boxes and wooden cills, all having orange brick quoins, flat gauged-brick arches, brick aprons, and those at centre and to blind bays 3 and 9 with roll-moulded surrounds. Heavy wooden dentilled eaves cornice. Oeuil-de-boeuf window with radial glazing bars to pediment. 3 flat-roofed attic dormers, two with 6-pane and one with 9-pane sashes. Right return: 2,1,2 bays with centre recessed. Similar to front but with segmental brick arches to windows, brick plat band, and pilaster buttress to rebuilt right corner. Central bay has round-arched former carriage entrance with keystone and imposts and C20 glazing and stucco surround; dormer above. Left return similar, but with central and left-hand bays altered C20. Rear: 10 bays. Some rebuilding of brickwork and right-hand bays covered by late-C20 single-storey addition. 6 dormers. Interior: Some C17 floors and ceilings known to survive, but mostly concealed, with large-scantling beams, some chamfered, and wide floor-boards. Surviving section of moulded wooden ceiling cornice in 1st-floor rear room. Stone flags to front basement. C17 roof timbers, comprising collared principal rafter roof trusses with tie-beams, and coupled common rafters. History: the building originally housed a tavern, a coffee shop, a shop, gambling facilities in the Great Chamber (the ground floor room of the rear range) and dancing facilities in the Long Room (above the Great Chamber). There was a bowling green to the rear.

Important as the earliest known surviving building of this type in England.

Waterloo House, High Street, Epsom, Surrey. RCHM(E) Report, 1998.

.

Listing NGR: TQ2062460705