93-99 High Street

DESCRIPTION / STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
This row of two storey commercial premises is attractive as well as functional, in cheerful red brick with sandstone dressings, and appealing timber sash windows to the first floor. These are typical of the Arts and Crafts period, with four panes to the top sash and a single one below. To the ground floor some original shop front elements remain: the carved wooden pilasters between shopfronts, each of a distinctive design including acanthus and dome decoration, and fluted corbels beside the deeply corniced fascias. It is unfortunate that externally mounted roller shutters have been added, and although stall risers are still present it is unclear whether this was their original form. To the 1st floor the sashes are grouped in stone surrounds (pairs in the central properties and 3s to the outer ones). The shallow pitched slate roof features two lofty square brick corniced chimneys, and the cast iron downpipes still cling to the elevation. The properties form an ensemble with the Blue Bell Hotel on the corner to the south, as a pleasing and good quality early commercial group. MATERIALS Red brick, sandstone, timber, slate DATES c1910 LOCAL LIST