59 High Street

59 High Street

A mid-terrace, double-fronted two-storey house of mid-19th-century character, built on tall foundations with a sloping rear garden approximately a floor's height below, accessed by an exterior stair. The terrace is banked up with no basements. The building is constructed of irregular large rubble stone with imitation sandstone door and window frames and an Ffestiniog slate roof.

The pitched roof has slightly projecting eaves to front and back. The rendered chimney stacks, shared with numbers 58 and 60, are the only ones remaining in rubble stone on the terrace, retaining original chimney pots.

The original timber front door features a Suffolk latch (moved from an internal door) and a horizontal overlight with art nouveau patterned glass. The imitation sandstone door frame has slightly chamfered vertical edges. The recessed hornless sash windows with slate sills to the front are original except for the ground-floor right window to the parlour. The front elevation displays 12 panes to either side of the front door with 9 panes directly above.

The rear elevation is more heavily pointed in lime mortar due to exposure to prevailing weather. An original exterior staircase with slate treads descends from a rear garden door on the left down to the right, with a ninety-degree turn added at the bottom. The staircase has a bracketed handrail made from re-used iron pipe. Above the staircase is a substantial blind area rising to the rear bedroom window. The slate rail at the top of the stair bears graffiti reading 'TH 1898' with a picture of a pick and rope. The rear garden door is modern but designed in character with 12 panes. The rear windows with slate sills are replacements in original openings: a 12-pane hornless sash to the left of the garden door, a 2-panel casement split vertically directly above the garden door, and a 2-panel casement to the right of this. The upper-floor windows are flush with the eaves.

The ground floor is organised with a lobby entrance onto a central corridor, with a small front parlour to the right and a rear kitchen with garden door to the left, and a lounge with a corner stair. The slate flag floor and exposed timber ceiling beams throughout the ground floor are original. The hall and kitchen have lath and plaster ceilings, whilst the lounge has plasterboard. The inner front door has an overlight with art nouveau patterned glass and leads onto the corridor with an under-stair cupboard against the rear wall. The parlour fireplace was lost before the 1970s. A substantial inner slate sill to the kitchen rear window survives. The lounge contains a recreated fireplace in slate and cast iron with decorative ceramic tiles and timber surround. An original slate lintel is reportedly contained within the wall but is broken. A shelf with curved ends sits above the fireplace. The original timber corner staircase begins against the rear wall of the lounge and turns ninety degrees to align with the central corridor. The steps are boarded, with two curving wall stringers, a tall square and vasiform post, curved rail and thin squared balusters.

The first floor comprises a bathroom at the rear right and a small front bedroom to the front right with a corner inset by the stair landing, a large front bedroom to the left, and a rear bedroom. Vertical timber partitions are throughout.

New timber partitions on the upper floor have been installed in the same positions as lost originals. The partition wall to the bathroom is angled to meet the left rear window between its two panels, allowing light to reach both the staircase and the bathroom. Exposed timber roof trusses are visible in both left-side bedrooms. The small front bedroom has an original iron and stone fireplace with a slate rear panel and added late-Victorian ceramic tiles. The large rear bedroom window retains a substantial slate sill salvaged from the ruins of a former quarry pay office during the 1970s. This sill is inscribed with graffiti including 'WR 1900', 'JW 1929' and a detailed image of a packet of Gold Flake cigarettes signed 'RJ Roberts, August 1927'.