5, Market Place

This is a house with a shop, dating from around 1453, and later modified in the 19th century. It was originally built as part of the "New Works" commissioned by Bishop Bekynton. The building shows group value, representing a significant contribution to the historic environment.

The property extends to Cathedral Green to the north. The front, facing Market Place, is rendered and colourwashed, with a Welsh slate roof concealed behind a parapet, and a brick chimney stack. The ground floor has a projecting shop front of late 19th-century style, featuring a painted panelled ashlar stall riser, a large 12-pane display window flanked by slim fluted pilasters, and a fascia with a shop blind. A six-panel door with a plain rectangular fanlight is located to the left, all under a felted flat roof. The upper floors have a wide, shallow-angled bay window extending to the full height of the parapet. This bay incorporates sash windows with exposed boxes containing eight-over-sixteen-over-eight panes on the first floor and nine-over-fifteen-over-nine panes on the second floor, with cornice mouldings over each window. Traces of the original medieval string course are visible beneath the rendering at second floor level. Behind the parapet are two small flat-roofed dormers, one slightly higher than the other, each with a louvred window. A small chimney stack is situated to the right, set against a raised coped verge.

The north elevation, facing Cathedral Green, is constructed of rubble, with a double Roman tile roof with a steep pitch, topped with a coped gable. The elevation is three stories and attic in height. A small square light is present in the gable above a large four-pane sash window, although evidence suggests a wider casement formerly occupied the space. At the first floor are two four-pane sash windows set within concrete lintels, and at ground floor a four-panel door with a plain transom light, featured in a Tuscan pilaster surround, alongside a two-light casement window. The right-hand eaves display a brick stack on a coped gablet.

The interior retains some original features, including four bays of ceiling with moulded beams on the ground floor. A stone newel staircase leads to the first floor, where there are further two-bay ceilings with moulded beams, a 19th-century fireplace, and a newel staircase. The second floor has a suspended ceiling below the medieval roof structure, doors from the late 18th century, and a large 18-pane sash window with thick glazing bars to the stairwell. It is considered part of an outstanding late medieval planned group.