The Shambles

A merchant's house, now shops with accommodation above, located on the east side of Higher Street. The building occupies a medieval site and dates to the early or mid-17th century, though it has undergone various alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries, including a major refurbishment in the 19th century and substantial repairs around 1955.

The structure combines mixed construction methods: stone rubble party walls (with the rear part of the Smith Street party wall rebuilt and rendered), timber-framed front and back crosswalls, stone rubble stacks and chimneyshafts to the side walls, and a slate roof. The plan was originally two rooms deep with a side passage to the right and a newel stair in an alcove near the front of the south party wall, though the layout has been much altered over time.

The building rises three storeys with an attic in the roofspace and a cellar, now used as a shop accessed from Smith Street. The Higher Street frontage displays a jettied shop front between thick side walls, with corbelled projections at each floor level. The ground floor, which is rendered, contains a 20th-century timber shop window with glazing bars and a pair of panelled doors with plain overlights—the left serving the shop and the right the house. The first and second floors feature mullioned casement windows dating to around 1955, designed in 17th-century style with diamond panes of leaded glass. The first-floor oriel, containing six forward lights, was rebuilt based on internal evidence to reflect its original 17th-century size. The side walls display 17th-century framing with small scratch-moulded panels. The second floor retains 17th-century close-studding (which was probably originally slate-hung) and two casements positioned where small 17th-century oriels formerly stood. The original front gable was replaced by a hip roof in the 19th century. The Mill Street elevation shows a blind, rendered stone rubble front section, while the rear section is rendered brick, presumably built when Smith Street was widened. The cellar opens directly onto the street as it descends to Lower Street.

The rear elevation on Mill Street contains a 19th-century timber shop front with a glazing-bar window and a recessed doorway beneath a fascia with shaped brackets at each end. Above are central horned four-pane sashes at each floor, with the ground floor example positioned within a tripartite sash arrangement. Narrow horned two-pane sashes occupy the ground and first floors.

The interior is well-preserved. There is little evidence of original partitions, suggesting they were non-structural. Each floor features large axial joists resting on a massive plain-chamfered crossbeam. Some original joists are of pine. A newel stair rises around a mast-like pine post. The ground-floor fireplace is a 19th-century insertion, but those on the first and second floors are original 17th-century work—relatively modest in size with hoods supported on shaped timber corbels and moulded oak lintels. The posts flanking the front windows are richly moulded with elaborate stops. The rear wall at ground- and first-floor levels employs similar framing to that on the second-floor front, with parts of a wide blocked ovolo-mullioned window visible at each floor. A 17th-century moulded doorframe alongside the ground-floor rear window contains a contemporary panelled door hung on cockshead hinges. Another 17th-century panelled door provides access to the attic stair. The roof comprises 19th-century tie-beam trusses.

The house before its renovation, along with an adjoining older house to the north, is depicted in a drawing by William Henley, reproduced by Ray Freeman in his work "Dartmouth and its Neighbours" (1990).