17 High Street

17 High Street is a striking urban building that dates back to at least the early 17th century. Originally, this site was occupied by a poor tenement known as Chelsea Barracks. The building's unconventional form and detailed character suggest it may have been intended for institutional use, although it now functions as a pair of private houses.

The exterior features rough local limestone rubble and a slate roof supported by a modillion eaves cornice, with brick gable end axial stacks. The building is three storeys high and has a four-window range, with a passage entrance located to the right of the centre. Number 17 is accessed from this passage, while the doorway to Number 18 is at the far right, which disrupts the otherwise regular alignment of openings. There is a disused passage entry corresponding to that of Number 17. The doors are incised 8-panel types with overlights, set in an architrave that features a raised diamond motif in the entablature and mutules on the cornice hood. The round-arched passage entry leads to wide three-light mullioned and transomed windows with small panes and cambered stone voussoir heads on the ground and first floors, along with similar lower mullioned windows in the attic storey.

Inside Number 17, there is a steep early 19th-century staircase running up the centre of the house. Each floor has two rooms at the front (the first floor has been modified to create one large room) and a large and small room at the rear. Access to these rooms is directly off the staircase, which is an unusual arrangement. The small rear room and the upper front room are approached via a small landing, while the rear large room is accessed via a secondary flight of stairs. The second front room can only be reached through the first front room. The roof truss is of an unusual type, featuring a king-post with chamfered joints and two pairs of braces that are cross-braced to both the king-post and the tie-beam.