89 And 90, Church Street

Nos. 89 and 90 Church Street is a house at the end of a row, featuring a shop that returns to St Mary's Street. It dates from the 15th or early 16th century, with some 20th-century alterations. The building has braced timber-framing in large square panels, a brick return, a stone plinth, and a tiled roof with a brick stack.

The property, which was previously described as entirely encased in brick, underwent significant rebuilding with new framing in the 1970s but still stands over a vaulted cellar of earlier origin. The exterior consists of two storeys, an attic, and a cellar. It has two gabled dormers above three 2-light casements arranged in three adjacent wall panels. The shop front features multiple panes with a recessed central door accessed by four stone steps. The plinth wall, which forms the upper part of the basement, acts as a stall riser to the windows and contains the upper part of a slit light to the right. The upper floor jetties out, supported by a corner bracket.

On the right return, there are 2-light casements in segmental heads for the attic and first floor, along with a multi-pane fixed light on the ground floor. A short gabled wing is slightly angled to follow the street line, and there is a stack at the rear.

The interior has been rebuilt to reflect a historic pattern with good timbers, but is largely of 20th-century construction. Nine steep stone steps lead down to the basement, which has a concrete floor, rubble walls, and a quadripartite vault featuring deep broad-chamfered ribs with narrow arrises. The rough-cut stone in the severies follows the English mode. At the stair entry, there is a narrow section of vaulting with a rib that rises from the front wall and dies into the stone wall. The vault ribs are supported by carved corbels at the stair end. The center front has a trimmed opening and marks the beginning of a flight of steps to the pavement, which is now sealed. Opposite the stair, there is a deep embrasure for a slit window in dressed stone. The vault form suggests it may continue under the adjacent road (St Mary's Street), but excavation during the restructuring did not confirm this. The building is important for the retention of the stone cellar.