44 (first-floor flying freehold only), 46A, 50 and 50A Holyrood Street

House in a row, subdivided into two commercial units and separate first-floor accommodation. 17th century, with later alterations and additions. Attached ranges to the rear, altered and modernised in late 20th and early 21st centuries, are now separate dwellings and excluded from this listing.

MATERIALS

The building is constructed of stone and brick with roughcast render. The roof is covered with artificial slates to the front (east) and triple Roman clay tiles and felted sheeting to the rear, with a crested ridge to the southern half. Brick ridge stacks are positioned at right-of-centre and the right (north) gable end, with stepped stone coping to the left gable end.

PLAN

The building has a two-room cross-passage plan with later rear wings that have been much altered and converted to two further dwellings. It was single depth when originally built and has a later, probably 18th-century, outshut to the rear and a lean-to rear porch.

EXTERIOR

There are two storeys. The principal (east) elevation is a four-window range. All windows are modern, mostly timber, though those on the upper floor of the left-hand half (50A) have uPVC frames. Number 46 has an inserted shop front with a fixed-light shallow-bowed shop window and multi-paned glazed door to 50. To the right of centre is a six-panelled door onto the through passage. The rear elevation is masked by several additions of various dates, including a single-storey lean-to porch (evident on the mid-19th-century Tithe Map), a late-20th-century two-storey range which is a separate dwelling (excluded from this listing), and a late-20th-century flat-roofed extension. The rear windows comprise late-20th-century timber casements and an early-21st-century uPVC window. The rear entrance to the through-passage has a square-headed pegged doorcase, though the door is a modern replacement.

INTERIOR

The through-passage has a stone flagged floor. On the right side is a doorway to 46 Holyrood Street with a late-19th or early-20th-century door and architrave. On the left side is a late-19th-century plank door to the rear outshut of 50 and a modern door accessing the first-floor flat (50A). The passage has two ceiling beams with deep chamfers; one with stepped stops to its south end. These beams continue into the ground floor of 46A and extend the full width of the room, though here they have been partly encased. The front ground-floor room of 50 has a fireplace with a chamfered timber lintel backing onto the passage. It has chamfered axial ceiling beams, and the beam to the left of the fireplace appears to incorporate the arched head of a former doorway. At first-floor level the right-hand half of the building underwent refurbishment in the early 21st century with all joinery, except exposed lower sections of historic roof trusses and a short length of purlin, dating from this period. The left-hand half (50A) has mid- to late-20th-century doors, architrave and skirtings. The doorway to the bathroom in the rear outshut retains a pegged doorcase of probable 18th-century date, and recesses to either side of the chimney breast may indicate the position of former historic openings through to the north half of the building. The roof structure shows evidence of several phases of replacement, renewal and strengthening, some historic. The original 17th-century principal rafters remain, including a closed truss of stakes and withies at the south end of the building.

The attached dwellings at 48 and 46B Holyrood Street to the rear, and the late-20th-century flat-roofed rear extension of 50 Holyrood Street, are not of special architectural or historic interest and are excluded from this listing.