23, 25, 27 AND 29, HIGH STREET

23, 25, 27, and 29 High Street is a town house that has been converted into shops on the ground floor and offices above. It dates from the early 18th century and features Baroque architectural elements, although there have been 20th-century alterations to the ground floor. The building is constructed from mottled yellow brick with red brick dressings and has plain tiled roofs that are obscured by stone-coped parapets. It is situated on a corner site with a rectangular plan and consists of two storeys with tall attics and panelled stacks at each end.

The façade has a regular arrangement of seven bays, with the central three bays set in a pedimented break. A fine cornice with modillioned egg and dart detailing runs above the first floor, supported by giant angle pilasters that feature triglyph and guttae patterned capitals adorned with an egg and dart band. The lower parts of the pilasters have been removed. The parapet has moulded brick coping with seven sunk panels and square corner newels.

There are seven attic sash windows with quoined red brick surrounds, segmental gauged brick heads, and Portland stone keystones; only the two left-hand windows still have glazing bars. The first floor also has seven sash windows in similar surrounds with gauged-brick aprons below, with only the two left-hand windows retaining glazing bars. The ground floor features 20th-century plate glass shop fronts.

On the right-hand return front facing Friary Street, there are six bays with a cornice that projects over two end pilasters and a two-bay centre projection. Two left-of-centre bays are now blocked, and the windows no longer have glazing bars. The interiors have been partitioned with little original detail remaining. Photographs of the building are held in the National Monuments Record.