Top to Toe Beauty

Top to Toe Beauty is a house that has been converted into commercial premises, dating from the late 16th to early 17th century, with later additions and alterations. The building features a combination of stone and timber framing with brick nogging, and is finished with painted brick and tile-hanging. It has a plain tile roof and stands two storeys high, with a front range that includes an attic. The front range consists of two remaining bays from a larger house, with the right bay being a narrow smoke bay. The rear wing is separately framed and has two bays, with the left bay also formerly serving as a smoke bay. A further bay was added to the left in the 17th century, along with an added out-shut.

The road-facing front is constructed of brick in Flemish bond and features an early 20th-century shop front with a central glazed door and plate-glass windows, which are flanked by pilasters that support gableted console brackets on either side of the fascia board. On the first floor, there are three windows; the left one is bricked up, the right one has a sash with glazing bars, and the central window is tripartite with a sash and narrow four-pane side-lights, all of which are unhorned.

On the left return, the front range has a small inserted ground-floor window and a tile-hung gable with a three-light small-pane window. The left wing features stone and brick on the ground floor, which includes a door with six incised panels flanked by two-light small-pane casement windows. The timber frame is visible on the first floor, showcasing a mid-rail with angle braces to the wall posts, a wall plate, and casement windows in the upper part of the frame on the right, while the left bay has poorer quality framing.

Inside, the front end of the wing has a formerly closed truss, with the tie-beam showing mortices in the soffit from former studs, and the apex features a queen post truss. Although the first floor and roof were not inspected, the front range is noted to have wattle and daub partition walls in the smoke bay, smoke-blackened timbers within the smoke bay, and queen post roof trusses with clasped through purlins and curved wind braces, most of which have been removed.