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The Crown Inn was situated on Ermine Street. This was a grade-II listed pub.

From: An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire, 1968

The Crown House, a former inn, is of two storeys with cellars and attics. The walls are partly framed and partly of red brick and the roofs are tiled. The building is to a U-shaped plan with a main range along the street and divergent wings to the W enclosing a yard which is connected with the street by a carriage entry in its NE corner. The structure is of C16-17 but was considerably altered in the C17 and subsequently. A first-floor gallery on the S and E side has been removed along most of the S side and has been enclosed and underbuilt on the E side. The S and parts of the E and N elevations are in red brick of the late C17 which may replace an earlier timber frame. Some original studwork survives N of the entry and in the upper parts of the E and N walls. The S side has a stepped and moulded plinth and a double band at first-floor level. The brickwork of the E front is similar an both now have C18 hung-sash windows, some of which have been set in earlier openings. The roofs are hipped excepting the W end of the S wing which is gabled. Spanning the E end of the entry is a wooden lintel of the first half of the C17, and at the W end of the entry the bressummer carrying the gallery over it is carved with egg and dart ornament. The external appearance of the building from the yard has been confused by alterations and additions as well as by the partial destruction and enclosing of the gallery. The N wing extends to a large brick-built outbuilding of the late C17 or C18, much altered, which has been a used as a stable. Beyond it is a walled enclosure and a small pond with brick revetment. Inside the house are several C17 brick fireplaces, for the most part elliptical-headed and placed across the corners of the rooms. One retains its original plaster, the rest have exposed brickwork and may have been stripped, the largest has a wooden lintel in place of an arch. Visible features of the C17 on the upper floors include three turned wooden posts of the gallery front; some wall painting in light red, yellow ochre and black in imitation of inlaid panelling four panels high with a frieze; and a door of six run-through panels with cocks-head hinges and carved overthrow. A short stair to an attic has flat pear-shaped balusters and is C17 or C18. To the N of the entry there was, until recently, a small C18/19 postal sorting office, but now all that survives is the wooden post box built into the N wall of the entry.

Listed building details:

House formerly The Crown Coaching Inn. C16 or early C17 with later C17 and C18 alterations. C17 red brick, painted in street elevation, and exposed and plastered timber-frame. Hipped plain tile roofs. Two ridge stacks to left hand and one stack to right hand. Two storeys with attics and cellars. U-plan with rear wings enclosing yard and with evidence of galleries to south and east; carriageway to north of centre and coeval with north range; south and west ranges late C17. Street elevation: Plastered plinth and double brick band between floors. Two first floor and one ground floor blind windows, five first floor twelve-paned slightly recessed hung sash windows and four similar ground floor windows. Entrance to left hand approached by stone and brick steps with six-panelled C19 door and panelled reveals to doorcase with canopy on shaped brackets. Carriageway with early C17 carved four-centred headed arch; half-glazed door to right hand. Rear elevation has enclosed gallery to east and partly demolished and enclosed gallery to south; three wooden pillars survive. Interior: Red brick corner hearths with elliptical brick arches and one with a mantel beam, in south and rear ranges; large inglenook hearth to north range. Wall painting of panelled design in first floor room. C17 door with cockshead hinges. Short flight of original attic stair with flat balusters. The Crown Inn was the collecting Post Office for north Cambridgeshire by the end of the C18, and was used as a Magistrates Court until 1839, it ceased to be an inn c1860.

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