15, High Street

No. 15 High Street is a former hotel and cafe, vacant at the time of inspection. It is primarily a late 16th-century refronting of an early 16th-century house. The construction is a close-studded timber frame with herringbone strutting, plaster panels, and a tile roof, with a brick stack.

The main block features a double-jettied front and a roof parallel to the street. It incorporates a throughway to the left and a long wing to the right, serving as a rear service area or hall, with a half-hipped gable. The building is three storeys high and has a basement, with a two-window front. The second floor features four-pane sashes in raised, moulded jambs and heads, also including a small single light to the left return. The first floor has slightly canted oriels with 2:4:2-pane sashes beneath a jetty. The ground floor now has a 19th-century shop front consisting of two canted bays with sashes and a central part-glazed two-panel door with a transom light. An early plank door, with vertical battens and a four-centred timber head featuring carved dragon or lion figures in the spandrels, is located to the left, accessed by a stone step. The jetty on the first and second floors is supported by three decorative consoles, a simple bressumer fascia, and a top mould. A fascia band with brackets leads to a deep entablature or blocking to a moulded parapet, all in timber, concealing a gutter. The main roof, which was in poor condition with loose tiles at the time of survey, is visible from the street. A tall brick stack is located on the rear eaves to the right.

The rear wing is constructed of timber framing with brick nogging and a tile roof. On the south side, a former jetty has been rebuilt in brick. A canted section joins the rear wing to the main building at first floor, where the main building's framing is smaller-panel and rendered. A raking two-light dormer window is present, as is a wide two-light casement window on the first floor. An early four-light casement is found in the gable.

The interior was inaccessible during the survey but previous records mention doors with linenfold panelling and fine carved moulded ceiling beams. According to SR Jones (Victoria County History), the front ground-floor room contains around 1530 moulded beams with a ceiling boss carved with an Agnus Dei, a four-centred moulded fireplace bearing the initials RB, and fragments of linenfold panelling. The rear wing may have been divided into a hall and service rooms. The building is considered to be an early and architecturally significant example, representing the West Midlands carpentry school style, of refrontings common in Tewkesbury between approximately 1570 and 1670.