51 Trumpington Street and 2 Pembroke Street with wall-mounted Richardson Candle

Summary

An early 19th century former house with shop (51 Trumpington Street) and its neighbour 2 Pembroke Street which has early 16th century fabric behind an early 19th century front.  Number 51 has one of the bespoke wall-mounted street lamps designed for Cambridge  by Sir Albert Richardson.

Reasons for Designation

51 Trumpington Street and 2 Pembroke Street with wall-mounted Richardson Candle' is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* for the contribution the site makes to the evolution Trumpington Street and Pembroke Street;
* for the evidence of a C16-timber frame found in 2 Pembroke Street;
* for the local cultural significance of the Richardson Candle street lamp, designed by Sir Albert Richardson.

Architectural interest:

* for the architectural quality, proportions and detailing of both buildings;
* for the survival of internal fixtures of interest, including the staircase and fireplaces of 51 Trumpington Street and the surviving timber framed elements of 2 Pembroke Street;
* the Richardson Candle is a bespoke street lamp design, of high quality materials and elegant proportions.

Group value:

* the lamp forms a group with other Grade II listed Richardson Candles in the area and across the centre of Cambridge, notably the two groups of Richardson Candles in Trumpington Street (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entries 1400909 and 1400913).

History

51 Trumpington Street and 2 Pembroke Street stand on the site of the medieval hostel of St Thomas, an institution which provided extra-collegiate student accommodation associated with the University of Cambridge. The hostel was bought and sold by Pembroke College several times between 1451 and its suppression in 1526. In 1540, again in the ownership of Pembroke, it contained a hall, kitchen, brewhouse and 'house rooms'.

The earliest fabric on site dates to around the C16 and can be found in the internal structure of 2 Pembroke Street and may bear some relation to the former hostel or its immediate successor buildings. Here the posts, tie beam, braces and curtailed wall plates of a single bay of a timber frame survive within the first floor rooms.

The rest of the site had been comprehensively rebuilt by the C19. 51 Trumpington Street, at the south-western corner of the site, dates to the early-C19 and appears always to have operated as ground floor commercial premises with residential accommodation above. Census records show that it functioned as a bookseller from at least 1851. It continued to operate as a booksellers well into the second half of the C20.

In 1998, by which time the ground floor of 51 Trumpington Street had become part of neighbouring Fitzbillies bakery, a fire badly damaged the ground floor areas of the site. Post-fire refurbishment, and subsequent alterations in the C21 have reduced the visibility of surviving historic fabric at ground floor.

2 Pembroke Street historically refers to the two-storey building that adjoins 51 Trumpington Street on the east side. It was refronted in the early-C19, with multiple phases of construction evident internally. Census data identifies it as a boarding house in the C19. Today (2025) it has become incorporated within the student accommodation found within the basement and upper storeys of 51 Trumpington Street, all of which are referred to by the address '2 Pembroke Street' to distinguish it from the ground floor commercial premises.

Details

An early C19 former house with shop (51 Trumpington Street) and its neighbour 2 Pembroke Street which has early C16 fabric behind an early C19 front.  Number 51 has one of the bespoke wall-mounted street lamps designed for Cambridge  by Sir Albert Richardson.

MATERIALS: the external walls are chiefly built of gault brick, and the roofs are predominantly covered in slate or plain tiles.

PLAN: historic plan forms have been altered so that the basement and upper storeys of 51 Trumpington Street are not integrated with the eastern neighbour and are known as 2 Pembroke Street. The ground floor of 51 Trumpington Street no longer communicates with the rest of the building as described here.

EXTERIOR: 51 Trumpington Street is three storeys high with an attic behind a parapet and a basement lit by lightwells on Pembroke Street. It is built of gault brick and has two bays facing Trumpington Street and three facing Pembroke Street. The corner is a recessed curve. The parapet is marked by a plat band. The windows of the upper storeys are generally all un-horned wooden-framed sashes with concealed boxes, set beneath flat gauged-brick arches. Each of these windows has an external iron frame for a flower box, except the tall first floor windows onto Trumpington Street, which are French doors beneath fixed transom lights that have early-C19 balconettes. At ground floor on Trumpington Street there is a shop front: a plain surround with a central doorway flanked by large single-pane windows, deeply set. On Pembroke Street there is a central doorway beneath a recessed brick surround and a round arch; to the left is a single-pane window beneath a top-hung transom light, to the right is an original sash window with external wooden shutters.

Fixed to the east end of the first floor of 51 Trumpington Street is a wall-mounted 'Richardson Candle' street lamp. The street lamp comprises a vertical, tubular lantern of translucent glass, containing fluorescent tubes. The lantern has a simple cast-iron capping and base, and is wall mounted via a pair of plain metal brackets at each end. The lower bracket is embossed with the word REVO.

2 Pembroke Street is two storeys high and stands to the east of 51 Trumpington Street. It is partly oversailed by 3 Pembroke Street at first floor. The street elevation is faced in gault brick. At ground floor there is a recessed doorway framed by stone pilasters and a moulded canopy, to the right of which is a pair of two-over-four unhorned sash windows with concealed boxes and flat gauged-brick arches. At first floor there is a broad central window (a four-over-four unhorned sash with concealed boxes) recessed within a depressed arch. The window is flanked by recessed brick panels (tall, with a shorter panel above). There is a dentil cornice beneath the parapet.

INTERIOR: the ground floor interior has been heavily altered through changing commercial practices and as a consequence of fire damage in the late-C20.

Elsewhere the interior circulation has been altered to join 51 Trumpington Street and 2 Pembroke Street, but the principal rooms retain most of their historic dimensions. Notwithstanding the changes to the function of the buildings over time, surviving within them are cornices, skirtings, six-panelled doors and some fire surrounds.

Particular interest lies in the exposed elements of an historic timber frame within 2 Pembroke Street at first floor: a braced and pegged tie-beam of perhaps C16 date. The frame retains carpenters' assembly marks, and was evidently part of an open interior volume when constructed. The northern wall plate has been truncated on the west side and must historically have continued further towards Trumpington Street.

A staircase rises through all floors of 51 Trumpington Street and has a mahogany handrail terminating in a monkey-tail newel at ground floor with an ebony plug. The balusters are turned, and the open string has scrolling brackets.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

47857

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Stokes, HP, The Mediaeval Hostels of the University of Cambridge: Together with Chapters on Le Glomery Hall and the Master of Glomery in Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Vol. XLIX, (1924), 101
Aston, TH, Duncan, GD, Evans, TAR, The Medieval Alumni of the University of Cambridge in Past & Present, Vol. 86, (1980), 17

End of official list entry

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