The Forum Cafe

The Forum Cafe is a two-and-a-half storey building with two bays, featuring a rendered red brick facade and a timber-framed core beneath a slate roof. The ground floor has modern shop windows, while the upper floors jet out over the pavement, supported by a moulded oak bressummer carried on four Tuscan stone columns. The first floor includes two Victorian sash windows with segmental heads and corbelled sills. A modern metal hanging sign is mounted on the wall between the windows, projecting towards the street. The attic features a broad catslide dormer with paired sash windows that break the eaves, with a sill similar to those below.

Inside, the ground and first floors have exposed ceiling beams that are stopped-chamfered, with some ogee detailing and heavy keying in places. Behind the main ground-floor room is a stairwell that contains a fine full-height second-quarter 17th century narrow well stair. This stair rises through three floors to the attic, where it ends in a short gallery. Made of oak, the stair features moulded, pierced, and shaped balusters with square newels, which have strapwork relief carving and nail-head decoration on a broad string. The ground-floor newel has geometric pendants and a similar finial, although the remainder is lost, along with a moulded rail. On the first floor, there are two stopped-chamfered entrances and a 20th-century brick fireplace, along with a timber-framed partition truss leading to the attic floor.