London Buildings And Wall Attached To The Rear

Two houses on a corner, located to the south-east of the Market Place in Chippenham, now used as shops and offices. The buildings mainly date to the early and mid-18th century, with a wing to the rear of No. 34 dating back to the 17th century.

No. 33, facing west, is an example of mid-18th century architecture, constructed with painted limestone ashlar and covered by a slate roof. It has a double-depth plan and a symmetrical facade of three windows. The exterior features pilasters, a cornice, and a parapet. The second floor has two 20th-century windows flanking a blind window with painted glazing bars. The first floor features two early 19th-century sash windows with 4/8 panes of glass, flanking a 6/6-pane semicircular-arched sash. The ground floor has a fine, mid-19th-century, Classical-style timber shop front with Tuscan pilasters, patera to the cornices, and pairs flanking a 20th-century door. The shop front is topped with a fascia incorporating a modillion cornice and a central pediment displaying a carved shield and foliage.

No. 34 is from the early 18th century and has a 17th-century rear wing to the west, towards the churchyard. Its construction uses painted roughcast over limestone rubble with freestone chamfered block pilasters, a cornice, a restored parapet, moulded architraves, and a hipped double-Roman tile roof to the front block. The rear wing has a steep-pitched slate roof. The front block has a three-unit plan parallel to No. 33. It is two storeys high with a six-window range. The early 18th-century sash windows on the first floor feature thick glazing bars and crown glass, arranged as 6-over-6-pane windows. The ground floor features 20th-century shop fronts. A hood on brackets is located to the inside left, flanked by 19th-century shop windows. The left-hand shop window has a door to its right and includes a fascia and cornice, while the right-hand shop window is projecting and larger with three plate-glass panes beneath a fascia and cornice. The left return side displays a truncated brick stack corbelled out at the first floor, a 19th-century 3-light casement window at eaves level to the rear wing, and a 3-light leaded window to the gable end of the rear wing. Various 19th- and 20th-century openings are present on the ground floor.

The interior, originally a single building, features a continuous cellar (partially blocked). The 17th-century rear wing has a three-bay collar-beam roof and oak floorboards. The early 18th-century block also has a three-bay collar-beam roof and oak floorboards. A room on the right-hand side of the first floor (now part of No. 33) retains full-height raised-and-fielded panelling, a box cornice, and a painted stone open fireplace with a roll-edge moulding to the intrados and a cyma moulding to the extrados. The 20th-century central staircase (replacing the original) has an early 18th-century swept dado with raised and fielded panelling below.

A coped limestone rubble wall, approximately 2.5 meters high, extends about 8 meters from the south-east corner of the rear wing and fronts the Caretaker's Cottage of the Jubilee Building. The wall has a stone lintel above a 20th-century central door and a blocked 2-light window to the left.