No 23 Tufton Street, Ashford. A single storey 6 bay brick building of C19 date, poss. former industrial workshop with broad shallow arched windows on the alleyway side(west). The Street front has a replacement facade and is now a church meeting hall. Not marked on OS 1st ed (1868).(1)

In 2015 a planning application to demolish the existing buildings and redevlop the site was submitted. The initial application was subsequently withdrawn following planning advice from Ashford Borough Council. A historic building appraisal and heritage statement were then prepared to accompany a revised scheme. (2)

The report states that the site comprised "an agglomeration of 19th century interconnected single-storey buildings with later alterations and add-ons. The main building nearest to the Tufton Street frontage comprises a large hall with a barrel-shaped currugated iron roof supported on a lattice of angle-irons. Behind this is an area, now partially demolished, which housed offices, toilets and kitchen accommodation… The Tufton Street frontage has a plain rendered masonry façade within which is set a modern recessed entrance lobby… The flank wall to Bull Yard Lane is constructed of red brick with five segmental arch window openings. The back part of the building has additions and alterations mixing modern materials with old." (2)

"The building was most recently owned and used by the Ashford Christian Fellowship, a local non-denominational church… This use began in about 1984… and continued until July 2013 when the church moved from Tufton Street to the Centrepiece Church on Bank Street. Prior to 1984, the building appears to have been a car showroom" (2)

"The Ordnance Survey Edition of 1872 shows the site without any buildings on it… The edition of 1907 shows five adjoining buildings occupying the site… They appear to have been built to provide space for storage or industrial processes for businesses operating locally". "There is… no evidence that the site was developed with buildings until the expansion of Ashford in the 19th century, after the coming of the railway… The site lay beyone the extent of the built settlement in the 18th century." (2)

"The 19th century buildings erected on siite were utilitarian, built of basic materials, and …are now in a state of disrepair and dereliction… The existing buildings are of no special interest in architectural terms". (2)

<1> N/A, Site Visit by Kent SMR map (Bibliographic reference). SKE6450.

<2> The JTS Partnership LLP, 2015, Historic Building Appraisal, 23 Tufton Street, Ashford, TN23 1QN (Unpublished document). SKE32017.