27 Old Market Street

This is a terrace of houses, originally a mansion, dating to the 18th century. The buildings are constructed of stone, with some parts limewashed or painted, and number 17 rendered with a roughcast finish. The roofs are steeply pitched, covered with slate, and feature rooflights, with brick end, ridge, and lateral stacks.

The architectural style is irregular, with windows and doors spaced unevenly. Most openings have cambered heads and shallow reveals, and the majority of the windows are 12-pane sashes. The doors are mostly boarded. The buildings are two storeys high with a very deep attic, notable for the wide space between the first-floor windows and the eaves.

Number 17 has a two-window front, featuring one sash window and the rest UPVC casement windows, and a doorway with a deep hood. The original door has been replaced. Number 19 retains the remains of a doorway with a hollow chamfer, and a corbelled-out wall above, likely the remnant of a chimney. This section features a single window with a 16-pane sash on the ground floor. Number 21 has a two-window range and the remains of a relieving arch above the large ground floor window. Number 23 also has a single window range, with a similar relieving arch. Number 25, distinguished by its painted exterior, has a single window range of large 16-pane sashes positioned higher than those of number 23. It features a broad relieving arch to the first-floor window and a modern-style door with an overlight. Number 27 is wide, with a single window range composed of a tripartite sash on the ground floor and a round-headed doorway featuring a panelled, part-glazed door with a radial-glazed overlight; a smooth render quoin-strip is visible. The roof of numbers 25 and 27 is covered with artificial slate and is not continuous with the rest of the terrace. The original frontage is to the rear, but it has been significantly altered. Number 25 has a projecting bay, likely the location of the original entrance. Numbers 21 and 23 have hoodmoulds to the first-floor windows, and number 19 features a hoodmould with the remains of quadruple arched heads. High, wide relieving arches are characteristic of the upper windows in the terrace. The glazing varies throughout the buildings. Ground-floor extensions have been added.

At the rear of the building are some stone mullion windows with dripmoulds and bearing arches.

The interior of number 27 is of particular note, featuring exceptionally fine plaster ceilings from the 16th to early 17th centuries on both the ground and first floors. The lower ceiling displays a pattern of polygonal panels created by wide, curved, interlocking, decorated ribs with centre mouldings, including a Tudor rose, and rose and thistle motifs in the four corners. The upper floor shares a similar design concept, although the ribs are sharper. Surviving fragments of the cornice also contain shields and wyverns. Number 27 also contains an early, though repaired, rear door with deep hinges and a grid of battens.