20 - 22 High Street



Numbers 20 and 22 High Street are accommodated in this stone clad building wedged in between the modern retail & office block of 24 - 32 High Street and Debenham's.  When this photograph was taken, in October of 2010, it appeared that the upper floors were unoccupied and To Let.  The ground floor was occupied by a CafĂ© Metro.



I found the side of the building, shown below, interesting because, after the rendered portion, it is clad in white glazed bricks.  It also features rows of windows with leaded lights.



I was puzzled because obviously this building predates the adjacent modern block and its neighbours must have been demolished to make way for that new building.  Obviously, the windows are original so clearly the building next door didn't share this wall.  However, if the next building was set back allowing light in through those windows, why didn't the white bricks extend as far as the street?  I think the answer is shown in the map below.  It is my version of a map from 1886.  The answers seems to be that between 22 and 24 High Street there was a lightwell within the building with windows looking into the lightwell.  What we see above is the remnant of that lightwell.  The rendered section marks the part of the building that linked 22 to 24.  A bookbinder occupied the building at that time.




The lightwell can be seen in the aerial photograph below, dated 1953.  The building is indicated by a purple arrow and the lightwell, lined with white bricks, is indicated by a red arrow.