11, 13 AND 13A, HIGH STREET (See details for further address information)

Nos. 11, 13 and 13A High Street (which includes No. 12 Broad Street), Launceston

Two merchants' houses of similar date, with No. 13 dated to 1555 and inscribed with the initials T H on label stops for Thomas Hicks, who was Mayor of the town in the 16th century at the time of the Reformation.

Both buildings are timber-framed with jettied upper storeys and painted slate-hanging between stone side walls with incised stucco and triple-moulded corbels. The roofs are of dry slate with rubble lateral stacks to the rear of No. 11 and on the left of No. 13, and hipped returns to No. 11.

No. 11 presents a front gable parallel to the street, probably originally a pair of gables, with 3 storeys over basement, 2 storeys and attic, and an overall 3-window range. The 2nd floor retains original or 17th-century four-light mullioned windows with mid to late 18th-century casements with thick glazing bars (except for a blocked light on the right). The 1st floor has original or 17th-century oriel windows with moulded sills on shaped brackets, with intermediate mullions removed and replaced by early to mid 18th-century pairs of horizontal-sliding sashes with very thick glazing bars and return lights. The ground floor has a late 19th-century three-light shop front on the left and an early 20th-century projecting three-light shop front with glazing bars (except where removed to the central light). Original granite stall-risers and squat basement windows remain, along with an original moulded oak doorframe on the right containing an original 15-panel studded door. A window to the 2nd floor of the right-hand return is mostly blocked. The rear is slate-hung on a timber-frame with at least two windows with leaded lights and numerous 18th-century windows with very thick glazing bars, at least two of which are horizontal sliding sashes; one to the wing has a return light and all are within the remains of 17th-century or original frames.

No. 13 is a 2-storey building with attic, featuring a 1-window front set back from the other front. The upper floors have early to mid 18th-century paired sashes with very thick glazing bars, with a splay towards the corner to the 1st floor on the right. The ground floor has a late 19th-century shop window with a doorway on the right plus a splayed light to the far right; the entire shop front is angled so that it projects on the left, with a moulded fascia curving in on the right to fit under the jetty. The detail includes slender turned mullions with curved bases and caps, and a scribed pilaster on the left. The right-hand return has a four-light shop front with similar detail, the right-hand light occupying a former doorway. The 1st floor has original moulded granite jambs and lintel with hoodmould and inscribed stops linked to a granite string, with a pair of 18th-century sashes matching those to the front. The 2nd floor features a pair of late 19th-century four-pane horned sashes over a possibly original granite sill.

The plan of No. 13 comprises a cross passage on the right leading to a semi-circular newel stair projection, with a projecting rear wing on the left. No. 13 originally had a single-room plan, later subdivided on the upper floors.

The interiors of both houses retain many original or 17th-century features. These include ovolo-moulded door frames with unusual stops to several openings, and one 17th-century door with ovolo moulding. A winder stair contains 18th-century elliptically-arched doorways with 17th-century caryatids to the ground and 1st floors, a carved newel post, and an ovolo-moulded frame to the 2nd floor. Very wide elm floorboards are visible in places, and the roof structure where inspected (central bay of front) comprises oak trusses with lap-dovetail collar joints and original trenched purlins. Eighteenth-century features include moulded ceiling cornices to the cross passage and numerous 2-panel doors. Most fireplaces are hidden, but a large fireplace to the ground floor of the rear wing retains a 19th-century shelf and shaped hanging brackets. The basement was not inspected. Eighteenth-century frames to doorways between the houses suggest the linking of the two properties at that time.

These buildings are among the most visually interesting of the earlier houses in Launceston's town centre, having survived with little alteration since the 17th century and remaining unaltered since the 19th century.