29 And 30, West Street

This is a late medieval town-house, likely with shops on the ground floor, now used as a shop and dwelling. It was altered in the late 16th century, the 18th century, the early 19th century, and the 20th century. The building is timber-framed and rendered, with a plain-tiled roof, a lead flat to the front, and brick ridge and end stacks. The original layout is uncertain.

The house has a three-story, four-window front. A four-panel door is situated on the right, with an overlight, and a six-panel door to the far right leads to a passageway, both sheltered by a continuous dentil cornice hood. This hood likely extends beneath the 20th-century plate-glass shop frontage, which now occupies the remainder of the ground floor. Sixteen-pane sash windows are on the first floor, and twelve-pane sashes on the second floor, all with moulded wooden surrounds. A wood modillion eaves cornice runs along the top. The front wall has been raised to hide dormer windows of a former two-story and attic range.

A full-height gabled wing projects to the rear right, possibly a former stair turret. This is flanked by a later two-story extension, a further single-story extension with a pyramidal roof, which encroaches on the yard, and a two-story wing to the rear left.

The interior includes boxed beams on the ground floor and in the cellar, 19th-century fireplaces with cast-iron grates on the first floor. Rooms at the top of the main range have plaster barrel-vaulted ceilings, likely belonging to an Elizabethan long gallery, now divided by later partitions. A large early 18th or 17th-century stack is located near the center. The ceiling in the attic rooms of No.30 originally belonged to one room, now divided by a thin partition, and is divided into rectangular panels with ribbed plaster bands featuring rosettes at the intersections. Similar ribbed bands are at cornice level on the street side, extending into what were originally large dormer windows. The barrel-vaulted ceiling continues in No.29 but is unadorned. A plain plaster barrel-vaulted ceiling is in the wing to the rear of the main range and at a right angle to it; this may be the ceiling of a stair leading to the former long gallery from the ground and first floors. During repairs, parts of the render were renewed, revealing a timber frame with closely-spaced uprights, likely representing close studding. Evidence also shows ornament on the render of what were formerly dormer window "cheeks," now concealed by the raised front wall and lead roof.

The building was divided into two shops with living accommodation above, probably by around 1700, and certainly by the early 19th century. The two shops were later combined into one in the 20th century.