Summary
Terraced shop with offices above. Built in around the mid-C18 with C20 alterations.
Reasons for Designation
69 High Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a mid-C18 building which contributes to the character of an architecturally varied historic streetscape.
Historic interest:
* as part of the urban development of Newport’s historic core.
Group value:
* the building is in close proximity to a large number of listed buildings and forms part of a strong historic grouping.
History
Newport’s first charter was granted by Richard de Redvers, fourth Earl of Devon in the late C12 and this is generally regarded as marking its foundation. The settlement was laid out on the low-lying ground along the western bank of the River Medina using a grid-style plan. Recent topographic analysis suggests that Newport may have developed around an existing informal trading settlement located at the head of the Medina estuary, in the vicinity of Sea and Quay Street (Alexander, 2021). The High Street is one of five east-west running streets within the grid layout. High Street and Pyle Street extend the full length of the grid, divided by a market square, and form the planned core of Newport, with other shorter parallel streets to the south (South Street) and north (Lugley and Crocker Street). They were all largely in place by the mid-C13.
In the C14, the Isle of Wight was frequently subject to raids by French forces during long-running conflicts between England and France. According to historical documents, during one of the raids in 1377 Newport was severely damaged by fire and much of the population fled to Carisbrooke Castle. It appears that Newport was functioning again a few years later. During this century, records indicate that the population of Newport did decrease, most likely due to several wider economic factors, and did not significantly increase until the mid-C17. The town was incorporated as a borough in 1608 under a new charter granted by James I. Newport did not significantly expand beyond its medieval limits until around the late C18. By the mid-C19 there had been a more significant expansion of the town, including the development of its suburbs, which continued into the C20.
69 High Street was built in about the mid-C18 and is first shown on the 1864 Ordnance Survey (OS) map as a rectangular building fronting the High Street with a rear garden behind. A rectangular outbuilding (orientated east-west) occupied the southern edge of the plot. The plan form of the building appears to have changed little over the following 150 years, although there have been various rear extensions that have extended the building’s footprint further to the south of the plot.
Articles from the turn of the C20 in the Isle of Wight County Press and South of England Reporter state that 69 High Street was inhabited variously by an Outfitters (circa 1888 to 1893), an architect (1891), a chemist (1903 to 1905) and a photographer (1905 to 1910). A ‘to let’ advert from 1903 describes the building as including a ‘shop, show-room and dwellinghouse’. This is further expanded in another advert from 1905 that describes 69 High Street as having a ‘new front, modern appliances, 10 rooms, kitchen, scullery and offices’. The current building has a shop at ground-floor level with a separate access to offices above.
Details
Terraced shop with offices above. Built in around the mid-C18 with C20 alterations.
MATERIALS: built of purple grey bricks with red brick quoins and window dressings with the gable ends hung with slate and clay tile roof coverings.
PLAN: rectangular in plan with a narrow front elevation onto the High Street. As with most other historic plots along the High Street, 69 High Street appears to retain its historic, burgage plot width.
EXTERIOR: three storeys high and two bays wide. The front (north) elevation is faced with purple grey bricks laid in header bond with red brick window dressings and quoins. There is a large shopfront to the ground floor, which has large canted plate glass shop windows and a recessed central shop entrance with a tiled porch. The shop windows have upper leaded stained-glass clerestory lights. The central doorway has a fielded lower panel and large glazed upper panel and is set beneath a transom light. On the eastern side is an additional entrance providing access to the offices above. This is flanked by fielded pilasters set on fluted pedestals and contains a six-panelled door beneath a transom light. The pilaster to the east of the door, as well as a third one at the west end of the shopfront, support fluted console brackets. Set between the brackets is a large fascia panel carrying the shop signage surmounted by a moulded cornice and decorative ironwork balustrade with a circle motif and floral finials.
A shallow, flat-roofed oriel window is centrally placed above the shopfront at first floor level. This consists of three sashes; two four-over-four side sashes and a central ten-over-ten sash set beneath a plain frieze and shallow dentil cornice. At second floor level are two eight-over-eight sash windows with flush moulded surrounds.
