Building record 1193702000 - 3 WEST STREET

Grade II. Inn, now shop and hairdressers. Mid C18 altered C19 and C20. Rendered with hipped plain-tile roof. L-plan. 3-storey, 5-window range. C20 shop front to left of carriage arch with moulded round-arched head and imposts. 12-pane sash windows to 1st floor, 9-pane sashes to 2nd, all with moulded rendered surrounds. The central 3 bays break forward slightly and have a pediment. Plinth, rusticated quoins, sill bands to 1st and 2nd floors and moulded cornice. Full-height wing to rear left has a Venetian window to ground floor of right side elevation alongside carriageway. INTERIOR: open-well stair partly rebuilt with slender turned balusters of column-on-vase type, replaced on some flights by stick balusters. Formerly the Cobham Arms and an important inn (B1).
The Cobham Arms was one of at least four coaching inns in Buckingham, all rebuilt in in the 18th century when the coaching trade was reaching its peak. The Cobham Arms, owned by and named after Richard Temple, created Lord Cobham in 1714, closed following the bancruptcy of the Duke of Buckingham and was sold in 1856. The inn was the stopping point for the London coaches and was tenanted for over 100 years by the Baxter family (B2).
Photograph of the building in use as the town's Post Office in the early 1900s (B3).
25-inch OS maps show the building in use as a post office between 1900 and 1952 (B4).