53, High Street

No 53 on High Street is a three-storey building with attics, constructed between 1899 and 1900 by architects Wheeler and Lodge from Horsham and London. Originally a newspaper office, the ground floor is made of ashlar, while the first floor is brick and the second floor features applied timber and pebbledash. The roof is pitched and covered with tiles, and there are six hexagonal red brick chimneys connected by an elaborate cornice.

The ground floor showcases large windows with moulded wooden mullions, grotesque label stops, moulded wooden segment-arched transoms, and lead glazing bars. There are two 12-panelled doors, the central one having the upper six panels glazed, both adorned with dentilled cornices and brass art nouveau handles. A projecting ashlar cornice displays a strapwork cartouche indicating the establishment date of 1853.

On the first floor, there are two oblong bays featuring mullion and transom windows, casements with lead glazing bars, and a dentilled cornice. The second floor jetties out on elaborate consoles decorated with diamond facets, strapwork, triglyphs, and mutules. The close-spaced studs have intricate terms at either end, supporting two additional consoles that match the others. There are three projecting bays: the central one is segmental, while the flanking bays are canted, all resting on consoles and featuring lead glazing bars and dentilled cornices.

The attic storey also jetties out, with an embattled bressummer, close studding, a central term, a strapwork bargeboard, and a baluster finial. The ground floor contains a remarkable late 19th-century office interior, with glazed front and back walls, site walls covered in glazed tiles, high desks with embattled parapets, and elaborate brass racks and desks for ledger keeping.

Nos 51 to 67 on High Street form a group with this building.