Listed status for Borough High Street estate agent’s office

Field & Sons have occupied 54 Borough High Street for the last 135 years but the building dates from the early 18th century and is thought to include earlier fabric.

The building was last month added to the National Heritage List for England.

The site was at one time an inn known as the Hen and Chickens, and the building kept that name until the late 19th century.

According to the historical note included in the listed building record, during the 19th century the building was used as a drapers shop, and in the early 1870s as a hardware shop.

In 1875 it played a role in a celebrated murder case: Henry Wainwright was apprehended as he arrived at the building, then rented by his brother, attempting to hide the decomposing remains of his former mistress.

In 1880 the firm of Field & Sons (founded 1804) moved into the building and have occupied it ever since, although the Field family sold the company in 1999.

The reasons for listing include the fact that "the building retains valuable and legible evidence of a number of historical periods" and that "the ground floor office is a remarkably complete late-19th century commercial interior, including wooden panelling, chimneypieces, and glazed screens".