18, Church Street

This is a mid-19th century town house, built on an older site, with a later shop incorporated. The front is stuccoed, with a rag slate roof and a central gabled roof dormer concealed behind a parapet featuring a moulded cornice. A brick stack is located on the right-hand side. The house follows a double-depth plan, including an open passage on the left. It has three storeys and a two-window front. The original windows are 12-pane hornless sashes within moulded stucco architraves; those on the first floor have decorative "ears". The ground floor features a shop front dating from around 1900, with granite quoins, strips with caps, and a round-arched doorway to the left. The shop front includes a marble stall riser, plate glass windows with quadrant-fronted return lights, a glazed door with overlight, slender turned mullions with tree-of-life heads, a full-width entablature with moulded cornices, a blind slot over the shop, and end consoles with open pediments to the shop and the doorway. A tall stair sash with small panes is visible on the rear left-hand return. Inside, the original features include an open-well open-string staircase, panelled doors on the first floor, a moulded ceiling cornice to the front chamber, and projecting sash frames. Local tradition claims that John Wesley preached from the front chamber of a building on this site during his first visit to Launceston in 1762.