73 High Street

Summary

Terraced shop with flats above. Built in about the early C19.

Reasons for Designation

73 High Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an early C19 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 According to historical documents, during one of the raids in 1377 Newport was severely damaged by fire and much of the population fled to Carisbrooke Castle.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.

73 High Street was built in about the early C19 and is first shown on the 1864 Ordnance Survey (OS) map. This map shows a rectangular building fronting the High Street with a rear garden. This plan form appears to have changed little between the 1860s and 1980s. However, at some point between the mid-1980s and today the building was extended into the rear garden and now occupies the entire plot. The building was occupied by J G Murdoch and Co, manufacturers of musical instruments and appliances from 1891 to 1893 and by the Singer manufacturing Company in 1895 to 1898. Internal alterations were carried out in 2003 for conversion to a hairdresser salon. The building remains in retail use at ground-floor level with flats above (in 2024).

Details

Terraced shop with flats above. Built in about the early C19.

MATERIALS: constructed of brick which is rendered to the front elevation. The gable ends have hung slate and there is a clay tile roof and red brick chimney with red clay chimney pots.

PLAN: rectangular in plan with a narrower front elevation onto the High Street. As with most other historic plots along the High Street, 73 High Street appears to retain its historic, burgage plot width.

EXTERIOR: 73 High Street is three storeys high and two bays wide. The ground floor has a shopfront formed of stallrisers faced with faux quarry-faced stone, and two curved shopfront windows, each split into sixteen lights. The upper lights of each window are further subdivided into three leaded windows with mottled and bullseye glazing. There is a central recessed porch and eight-pane glazed door beneath a transom light. Above the shopfront is a fascia panel with modern signage and a shallow, projecting box hood. Immediately to the east of the shopfront is an entrance to the flats above. This has a six-panelled timber door and transom light flanked by Doric pilasters. Running across the top of the ground floor is a plain freeze and cornice. At first floor level there are two recessed eight-over-eight sash windows without sash horns. Whilst to the second floor there are two recessed four-over-eight sash windows without sash horns and a wooden eaves cornice.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

309543

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
OS maps (1:2500): 1864, 1898. 1910, 1968
Alexander, Magnus, Newport, Isle of Wight, High Street Heritage Action Zone: Topographic Analysis of the Late Medieval Town, Historic England Research Report 49/2021, (November 2021)
Gardner, W, Ordnance Survey drawings: Newport 27A (1793) Available at: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/ordsurvdraw/n/002osd00000027au00423000.htm l?_ga=2.217434710.1300542823.1618918049-422030527.1585733301
Isle of Wight Council (2007) Newport Conservation Area Appraisal.
8 August 1891, ‘Business Announcements’, Isle of Wight County Press and South of England Reporter, p. 1.
13 April 1895, ‘Situations vacant’, Isle of Wight County Press and South of England Reporter, p. 4.

End of official list entry

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