38 40, MARKET PLACE

Nos 38 and 40 in Warminster Market Place are late 18th century to early 19th century buildings that stand three storeys tall. They are constructed from Bath stone ashlar, featuring a rusticated ground floor and full-height angle pilasters. The buildings have a projecting plinth and plain strings at each floor level, along with a triglyph frieze, a moulded cornice with brackets, and a plain parapet. The entablature is slightly broken forward over the pilasters and central bay, which has slight projections.

The upper floors have three ranges of windows, which are glazing bar sashes. On the ground floor, a modern bowed glazing bar window has replaced a door in a deep splayed recess with keystones. To the left, there is a modern shop front with glazing bars and fluted pilasters, while to the right, an excellent mid-Victorian polychrome shop front features a recessed splayed centre flanked by colonnettes with floral caps, plate glass windows with cast-iron fretwork in the upper corners, and panelled outer pilasters to the fascia, which has scrolled brackets and a modillion cornice.

To the left, there is a two-storey lean-to extension with a modern six-panel door in an architrave surround and an arched fanlight, along with one window above, which is a later addition. The rear of the building has three wide bays made of coursed and squared rubble, with a low single-storey extension linking to a mid-19th century two-storey stable building that has five bays, constructed of coursed and squared rubble with brick quoins and dressings, and features lacing courses on the left and an old tile hipped roof.