17, Buttgarden Street

No. 17 Buttgarden Street is a house and saddler's shop, likely built in the mid-19th century, with an early 20th-century shop front. The front is solidly rendered, and while the roof is not visible from the street, it is probably slate. There is a red-brick chimney on the left side wall. The building is single-fronted and double-depth, with a rear wing that contains a harness-maker's workshop. It has three storeys and a two-window range.

The shop front is located to the left, with a house door to the right, both flanked and separated by pilasters featuring raised panels on the shafts. An entablature incorporates a blindcase with bracketed blocks at either end, and the cornice is topped with a lily-patterned iron cresting. The shop front includes two display windows that angle towards a central glazed shop door, which has a solid moulded panel at the bottom. There are coloured tiles in front of the door, with a panelled wooden ceiling above. The house door is a six-panelled design with shaped raised centres on the panels.

The upper storeys feature raised plaster quoins, with windows that have similar quoins and shaped heads, all fitted with six-paned sashes. The eaves-cornice is deeply projecting, and there are also six-paned sashes in the rear wall.

Inside, the shop contains display cases, a counter, and a cash desk, likely from the early 20th century, along with old benches in the workshop. The house section has not been fully inspected, but it includes a wooden staircase with thin square-section balusters, and the compartment has coloured floor tiles that appear to extend into the entrance passage.

The building has a long history associated with harness-making. Walter Chope, a saddler and harness-maker, was operating here in 1883, and by 1901, he had been succeeded by Sidney R Chope. The current owner of the saddler's firm, WT Johns, states that the shop front was installed in 1907.