2 And 3, High Street

Nos 2 and 3 High Street are late 19th-century shops with offices above, constructed of brick or rendered brickwork with some stone detailing and slate roofs. This group of three Italianate shops, now two, is positioned along the curve of the street and features back wings with very narrow light wells. The building rises three storeys plus an attic.

On the ground floor, there are three shop fronts with simple details and plate glass. The shop front for No 3 (House of Hair) on the far right retains four vertical panes and has a set-back door with a large transom light. The shop fronts are separated by stone pilaster strips with horizontal grooving and decorative caps that support brackets beneath a continuous fascia, which is topped by a moulded cornice and a decorative cast-iron balustrade. Each of the three fronts has two pairs of windows on the first and second floors, featuring moulded architraves and decorative bays with arched heads supported by bracket capitals and a central detached colonnette.

Pilaster bands extend to the cornice blocking and parapet, which has a moulded cill band at the second floor. The middle curved unit has a raised section supported by scrolls, containing pairs of small arched lights on each side and two round-headed dormers. No 2 (Pretty Maid) has a rendered front, with plain gable returns and plate glass sashes set back to the light wells. A broad brick stack is located at the north end of No 3.

This robust and largely unaltered late Victorian building occupies an important position at a street junction near the church, opposite No 3 North Road, which is of a similar style.