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

This is a substantial building, likely constructed around 1692 for Randolph Ashenhurst and Michael Cope, originally as assembly rooms, shops, and tenements. It has undergone considerable alterations in the 18th century and later, including major 20th-century re-fittings. The building is constructed of small red-brown bricks in a Flemish bond pattern, with clunch quoins. It has hipped plain tile roofs and one surviving brick stack.

The structure originally comprised a free-standing front range with other ranges added to form a rectangular plan around a central courtyard, with carriage access to the courtyard provided through the east and west ranges. The courtyard was later roofed over. The building has two storeys with an attic and a partial basement.

The north elevation presents a symmetrical facade of 4, 3, and 4 bays, featuring a central pedimented break. It has a plinth, and modern shop fronts at ground floor level. The windows are 12-pane sash windows; those to the left of the centre are recessed, while the others have exposed boxes and wooden cills, all framed by orange brick quoins, flat gauged-brick arches and brick aprons. The central and blind bays 3 and 9 feature roll-moulded surrounds. An oeil-de-boeuf window with radial glazing bars sits in the pediment. Three flat-roofed attic dormers, two with 6-pane and one with 9-pane sashes, are visible.

The right return has a recessed central bay and a two-bay arrangement to either side. It is similar to the front elevation but with segmental brick arches above the windows, a brick plat band, and a pilaster buttress to the rebuilt corner. A round-arched former carriage entrance with a keystone, impost and a 20th-century glazing and stucco surround is located centrally, with a dormer above. The left return is similar, but with alterations to the central and left-hand bays in the 20th century.

The rear elevation is 10 bays wide, with some rebuilding of brickwork and right-hand bays obscured by a late-20th-century single-storey addition. Six dormers are present.

Internally, some original 17th-century floors and ceilings remain, although largely concealed. These features include large-scantling beams, some stop-chamfered with run-out stops, wide floorboards, and a surviving section of moulded wooden ceiling cornice in a first-floor rear room. Stone flags are found in the front basement, and the roof contains 17th-century timbers consisting of collared principal rafter roof trusses with tie-beams and coupled common rafters.

Historically, the building served multiple functions, including as a tavern, coffee shop, shop, gambling den, and dancing hall. A bowling green previously existed to the rear.

The building is of significant importance as the earliest known surviving building of its type in England.