Craik House

Craik House is a pair of houses in a row, dating to the late 15th or early 16th century. A rear wing was added in the late 16th/17th century and further extended in the late 18th/19th century. The front of the building is timber-framed with plaster infill, with heavier box framing elsewhere and a brick underbuild, all topped by a tile roof and brick stacks. The plan features a side entry and a parallel arrangement, heated by a central, shared stack, with a lower rear wing forming an L-shape.

The front block is double-jettied, covering an entry to Turner's Alley to the right. No. 82 has a 3-light, 18th-century leaded casement with a central opening light to horizontal bars, and a similar window above, alongside a 20th-century 3-pane shop front with a door on the left. Flanking the first-floor window are delicately carved, cusped, blank lights, and a carved Perpendicular frieze runs along the width below the jetty, originally intended as a continuous window strip extending across No. 83. No. 83 features 3-light wood casements at the first and second floors, a timber bow shop front oriel, and an opening to the alley. The first-floor casement is flanked by 3 and 2 cusped panels, similar to No. 82, but with wider lights and a bressumer instead of a frieze. A large brick stack rises from the centre of the ridge, with some stone ridge tiles.

Behind the front block is a 3-storey unit of heavy box framing with brick nogging, featuring a 3-light casement, followed by a 2-storey brick unit with two 3-light casements and a plank door, leading to No. 83. A further heavy-framed unit stands slightly set back, with a large corner post and 3-light casements at each level, along with a part-glazed stable door to No. 82.

The interior of No. 82 showcases very broad ceiling joists, a chamfered transverse beam, large corner posts, a rebuilt fireplace with a rough bressumer, and a mid-18th-century winder stair with stick balusters and Doric newels. Fielded panelling is also present here. Framing is visible in the party walls and to the back, with heavy members. An upper, steep winder stair, probably from the 18th century, includes a section of fielded panelling at the head. The corner posts are reminiscent of cruck construction at the heads. A small, glazed courtyard connects to the back part of the premises, which is also framed, with a blocked doorway with a pointed head in the rear right corner. This room features chamfered-stopped ceiling joists.

The interior of No. 83 was not inspected, but its basic fabric is of the same date as No. 82 and contains fragments of late 16th-century wall painting in the first-floor front room, including extracts from Psalm 102 and a text beginning "Honour thy Father…".

It is noted that Mrs. Craik, author of 'John Halifax, Gentleman' (1857), resided in No. 83. The cusped first-floor panels are a rare and significant example of 15th-century wooden fenestration, particularly for a town house. The building is considered an exceptionally fine and well-preserved medieval town house.