Barbican House

Barbican House is a house that now serves as a museum. It dates from the late 16th century, with alterations made in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was refronted in the mid-18th century. The building is constructed of red brick, featuring a cement plinth, red brick dressings, plat bands, and a moulded cornice and parapet that support a plain tiled hipped roof. It has tall end stacks located on the parapet at the left end. The house has three storeys and a basement, with a regular five-window front. The sashes do not have glazing bars, and those on the second floor are shorter than those below.

The central entrance features a round arch on antae, with taller outer Doric columns supporting an entablature hood. The entrance includes a panelled door with a Gothick-glazed fanlight. There are two segment-headed windows that break into the plinth above the basements. The left return front, which faces Castle Gate, is canted in the centre with three two windows, while the extreme right-hand bay has a blind window. A tripartite sash window breaks through the parapet in the former hoist housing to the right.

Inside, the roofs include a dragon post for the gable jetty in the library on the second floor, with most roofs having been rebuilt in the 17th or early 18th century. The ground-floor room features a moulded fireplace with a Tudor-arched head inscribed with "IMH 1579" (for John and Mary Holmwood). The Iron-age room contains a late 17th-century fireplace with tapering pilasters, acanthus volute brackets, and a floral-decorated frieze. The Oak room has late 16th-century panelling, some of which is carved, along with a Tudor-arched stone fireplace with a moulded soffit and spandrels.

The first-floor rooms have further 16th or early 17th-century panelling, with the front room featuring fielded panelling from around 1710. The early 18th-century staircase has an open ramped rail and turned column-on-vase balusters with square knops, forming an L-shape with a short lowest flight. The panelled dado and the underside of the flight above are plastered, as is the ceiling of the first-floor landing. The upper part of the stairs is late 17th century, with wide open spiral balusters.