medieval shop at Lavenham. If sliding shutters were used, there is evidence that in some instances a shelf was provided pegged to the external face of the building just below the opening. In some instances the unglazed openings were fitted with a timber lattice, as can be seen at the medieval shop front at Charing. Not all shop fronts comprised two or three small openings: there is evidence that some had a single larger opening without mullions and arched spandrel panels, and this type survived well into the seventeenth century. In Cheapside, London, a row of identical timber-framed, gable-fronted, three-storey buildings, with shops under, built in 1585, still retain the unglazed shop front which remained an integral part of the structural frame, with the sill becoming the stall-board. Few shop fronts of this period survive for they have usually been replaced by later glazed shop fronts.
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