47 and 49 Westgate Street

Pair of two shops, formerly dwellings and possibly an early conversion of a large townhouse, dating from the early 18th century. The building was constructed above the surviving 13th-century undercroft of a former medieval merchant's house. Later alterations date from the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, with additions at the rear.

Materials consist of brick with rubbed brick details, a slate roof partly replaced by a 20th-century bituminous flat roof, and an undercroft of stone rubble with dressed stone details.

The vaulted undercroft is all that survives from the medieval house. The 18th-century building is divided into two units of equal size by a central party wall, which blocks the window openings in the central bay of the upper floors of the street façade. This is presumed to be a mid-18th-century alteration contemporary with the provision of a staircase of similar design in each unit. Both units were originally a double-depth block with a central stairwell. There are 19th-century rear wings and a linked outhouse at the rear of number 47.

The building is three storeys with surviving parts of attics, a cellar, and a vaulted undercroft. The principal elevation has an early 21st-century shopfront to number 47, with painted timber framing, mouldings, and fascia, and a door to the right. Number 49 has a mid- to late 19th-century shopfront with a recessed entry to the doorway on the left and fascia with moulded cornice and console end brackets.

The upper floors above the shops are five bays wide in dark red brick headers with details in brighter red and rubbed brick. There is a slight projection to the central bay and a crowning modillion cornice breaking forward with a pediment above the central bay against the parapet. Slightly projecting piers sit at the angles of the parapet over the central bay and at the outer angles of the front. Raised and chamfered quoins appear in the brickwork at the outer corners, continuing to ground level to the right, with plain bright red brick quoins to the corners of the projecting central bay. A restraining steel frame was applied to the front in the mid-20th century to prevent movement.

In the central bay on the first floor is a six-over-six sash window with thick glazing bars in an opening with a moulded and eared architrave, moulded sill, and a floating segmental pediment above. Above on the second floor is a smaller six-over-six sash with thick glazing bars in an opening with a segmental arched head, a moulded and eared architrave with a raised keystone in the arch, and a projecting sill. The ends of both sills are supported on consoles. In the bays to either side of the central bay, on each upper floor, are six-over-six sashes with glazing bars in openings with segmental rubbed brick arched heads, brighter red brick jambs, and projecting sills.

Number 47 has a ground-floor shop refitted in the 21st century. There is a 20th-century stair to the first floor and a mid-18th-century open well stair from the first floor to the attic with closed moulded strings, column newels, column-on-vase balusters, and toad-back handrail. Several doorways on the upper floors retain 18th-century moulded architraves; some 18th-century fielded panel doors have been removed and are stored in the building.

Number 49 has a ground-floor shop refitted in the 20th century. There is a mid-18th-century open well stair from the ground floor to the attic with details similar to the stair in number 47. The front room on the first floor retains an 18th-century moulded cornice and some door and window joinery. There is also an 18th-century door to a room on the second floor.

Below the building is a large medieval cellar with stone rubble walls, subdivided in the early 18th century into smaller units with brick walls and barrel vaults. In the rubble wall below the street front is evidence of a medieval doorway to Westgate Street at either end, each flanked by a recess. Extending from the cellar to the rear, and mostly below number 47, is a large 13th-century undercroft. Its barrel vault is strengthened by a transverse with chamfered ribs in eight bays; the bays at the further southern end are partially blocked by inserted 18th-century walls. In the west wall is an original doorway with stone jambs and later blocking in rubble. There are also remains of original plaster in the bays of the barrel vault.