The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 86 SE NEWINGTON HIGH STREET (north side)
5/6 No. 57 24.1.67 GV II
Cottage pair now house. C16. Timber framed and plastered with applied timbering with plain tiled roof. One and a half storeys to left with jetty, and stack rear left. Two storeys to light, with jettied first floor on brackets. Two margin-light sash windows on first floor, and 3 casements on ground floor, and boarded door to left.
Listing NGR: TQ8596264796

In 2017 the building was assessed for de-listing. In the event Historic England decided not to de-list the property but the assessment contained some useful information:

From the report:

"No. 57 dates from the C16. Its position on the Roman Watling Street, the main route from London to the continent, might indicate a likely location for an inn. However Pigott's Directory for the years 1832, 1833 and 1834; a time when coaching inns were in their heyday, and only mentions three inns licensed during those dates in High Street, Newington, which are all accounted for. Therefore No. 57 is likely to have been built as a residence. The adjoining No. 55 is of later construction, possibly C18 or early C19 in origin and probably had a commercial use. Buildings in this position are shown on the 1805-19 one inch Ordnance Survey map and subsequent editions. No. 57 was listed at Grade II in 1967 and the postal address did not include No. 57 but the current List description also included the High Street frontage of No. 55. Nos. 55 and 57 became part of a restaurant in the late C20 and are currently in the same ownership as No. 53, 53A and 53B, which was listed at Grade II as Allsworth's shop in 1984.
As only 15% of buildings on the National Heritage List for England pre-date 1700, No. 57 is a relatively rare survival of England's built heritage. It is a timber-framed continuous jetty house, a regional type and perhaps one of two such houses in the parish of Newington, the other being the George Inn (Grade II). No. 55 has a staggered purlin roof of C18 or early C19 date, which is more typical of a commercial or industrial building than a domestic building.

Although No. 57 was described in the 1967 List entry as having been two cottages it included a description of the High Street frontage of No. 55 which may have been a separate property at that date. The early Ordnance Survey maps as late as 1908 do not show any subdivision within No. 57. It is of two-storeys and two and a half bays, with an entrance from the High Street at the western end and an axial chimney to the north, mainly rebuilt. It is separately framed internally on the south wall, but it would have made two very small separate C16 houses and the jetty is continuous, so the evidence suggests that it was probably built as one house. Although the original means of access to the upper floor has not survived, and it was later extended to the north in the C20, the original plan is still readable despite later alterations. The High Street frontage of No. 55 is shown in an old photograph dating to about 1904 with a weather-boarded front and wide cart doors. At this date therefore it is unlikely to have been in use for residential accommodation. It is later in date than No. 57 and may have covered a formerly open yard and originally had some industrial or commercial use. In the C20 the ground floor was converted into a bar. Access to its upper floor is now by means of the staircase in No. 57.
The ground floor south wall of No. 57 along the High Street is close-studded internally, a mark of a high
status property because of the quantity and thick scantling of the timbers. A point of interest is a reused jetty post which has been incorporated in the wall by being turned round by 90 degrees. Ceiling beams survive between the ground and first-floor except for the southern part of the western bay where they were removed in the later C20 to provide a first-floor gallery. At the western end by the front entrance the ceiling has a semi-diagonal beam with floor joists. The first-floor south wall of No. 57 has four C16 curved braces, which are decorative as well as functional. The first-floor north wall also has studs and curved braces. Although the brickwork of the three fireplaces in No. 57 have been reworked in the C20, the wooden bressumers are older.

Certainly over 400 years there have been a number of alterations. The 1904 photograph shows that at that date the High Street frontage of No. 57 was rendered with incised lines to imitate masonry. Subsequently C20 applied timber-framing was applied on the first-floor. However behind this applied framing the original C16 frame survives internally. The roof structure has been altered although a queen post truss was visible, and part of the roof has the marks of wet plaster over laths, indicating that it had been used for storage at some time. The staircase is of later C20 date. No original internal partitions survive. No. 55 has lost the weather-boarded exterior cladding and cart doors shown in 1904.
However, despite these mid- and later C20 alterations, the original south wall of No. 57 survives on both
floors and retains its continuous jetty supported on wooden brackets. The ground-floor retains most of the original ceiling beams except where those of one bay on the south side were removed to insert an open gallery in the late C20. The first- floor north wall survives internally but the ground-floor is not visible because of later tiling in a kitchen extension. The east wall has been replaced in masonry on the ground- floor but retains a corner post and arched brace on a projecting plinth. Above this, a wall plate and corner posts is possibly indicative of more original fabric surviving. The west wall retains its wall plate. This adds up to a significant proportion of pre-1700 original fabric. Additionally No. 55 retains some visible wall frame and its three bay staggered purlin roof.

Nos. 55 and 57 High Street are situated in the historic core of Newington, on the Roman Watling Street. Not only do they adjoin Nos. 53, 53A and 53B but they are part of a group of seven listed buildings in the centre of Newington within High Street Newington Conservation Area. Together with Nos. 53, 53A and 53B they form one of the two longest runs of historic buildings within the conservation area.
In summary, on the grounds of date and rates of survival, plan form, fixtures and fittings, proportion of
survival and group value Nos. 55 and 57 continue to meet the listing criteria for their building type."(2)

<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<2> Historic England, 2017, Historic England Advice Report (Unpublished document). SKE32428.