2, Fairfax Place

2, Fairfax Place is a shop with domestic accommodation above, dated 1880. It was built for RC Cranford and is constructed of stone, brick, and timber framing, with a slate roof and pierced crested ridge tiles. The building has panelled chimneyshafts of red and yellow brick over slate-hung bases to axial and rear gable end stacks.

The three-storey building has a symmetrical three-bay front, flanked by stone party walls with moulded limestone corbels. The front is elaborately timber-framed, jettied, and gabled. A datestone carved with the years 1620 and 1880 is on the first floor to the left. A house doorway to the left features a four-panel door with overlight. The original timber shop front retains ovolo-moulded glazing bars and a bottom-panelled glazed door in a recessed doorway. A carved fascia above reads "CHYMIST" and is enriched with swags. The chemist’s symbol, a phoenix, is incorporated into the leaded glass above the shop door.

The floors above are jettied with shaped joist ends projecting through moulded timber cornices. The first floor has a central three-light oriel flanked by two-light mullion-and-transom windows. The remaining panels are decorated with Jacobean-style pargetting. A large pargetted panel representing the Borough seal is in the centre of the second floor. Either side are two-light windows, and above those are a pair of windows with a shelf for flowerpots in front, enclosed by a low balustrade of ornamental ironwork. The remaining front is hung with ornamental slates in two colours. Plain bargeboards top the gable, surmounted by an elaborate wrought-iron finial.

Internally, the building retains original joinery and plasterwork, including some of the chemist’s shelving in the shop. Nos 1-3 Fairfax Place were built together with a unified symmetrical frontage in a lavishly-decorated Tudor style.