169, Watling Street West

No. 169 on Watling Street West is a shop and offices that was originally a shop and dwelling. It dates from the mid-18th century and has been altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is made of red brick laid in Flemish bond, which has been painted, and features a slate roof with brick stacks at either end. It has a three-unit plan and a three-storey, five-window range. The ground floor has 20th-century shop fronts on either side of a 20th-century glazed door, with an arch to the far left that provides access to Meeting Lane. The first floor contains 19th-century sash windows with rendered segmental-arched brick heads and keyblocks. There is a second-floor storey band, with blocked angles and moulded stone eaves. Inside, the building features chamfered spine beams and a cambered stop-chamfered bressumer above the first-floor fireplace, which may have been reset.