Building record 1320506000 - 21 & 21A HIGH STREET

Grade II. C16, refronted late C17 or early C18. Stucco with chamfered quoins and bold modillioned cornice. Hipped old tiled roof. 3 storeys, 6 flush sash windows with architrave frames and glazing bars, key blocks to upper floors. Rusticated ground floor with central 6 panelled door under voussoir head, modillioned cornice and pediment, 2 paned rectangular fanlight. Flanking modern shop windows with cornices. Interior said to contain substantial remains of the C16 structure in a back wing (B1).
In October 1977 during conversion to offices, wall paintings were revealed under later wallpaper and limewash in a first floor room at the front of the building. The paintings completely covered one wall and comprised a large scale design of beasts heads, bunches of grapes and other fruits amid scrolling foliage and flowers in red, blue, green, brown and grey with black outlines on a background of white or cream lime plaster. Over the door a smaller panel had a human head flanked by cornucopiae. Clive Rouse dated the painting on stylistic grounds to the very late 16th century. See illustrated report for detail (B3).