A programme of (Historic England level 2) historic building recording was carried out by Colchester Archaeological Trust at 79 Magdalen Street, Colchester, in February 2019 in advance of conversion and alteration.<1> The building is a Grade II listed dwelling, originally constructed in the late 18th century as a public house called the ‘Colchester Arms’. The pub shut in 1910 after which it was the subject of significant alteration and modernisation, including the erection of a three-storey extension to the rear of the property. Little survives today that points to either the buildings use as a pub or its 18th century date. The building’s most interesting features are a series of substantial hand-sawn joists in the cellar that originated from an earlier, post-medieval, building.