49-51, HIGH EAST STREET

Details

738/7/43 HIGH EAST STREET 09-FEB-11 (North side) 49-51 (Formerly listed as: HIGH EAST STREET 50-52)

GV II A terrace of originally four town houses dating from c1795; the fourth house (at the east end) was demolished and replaced in the mid-1980s.

EXTERIOR: the houses are built in dressed stone, with three storey high street fronts with moulded wood cornices. The roofs, not visible, have tall brick stacks to the party wall. At first- and second-floor level each house has two cased and stone segmental headed sash windows, with the six-over-six pane sashes to no 49, those to nos 50a and 51 having been replaced with plate glass.

No 49 (The Casterbridge Hotel) has a round-headed doorway and a full width iron balcony at first-floor level. To the ground floor it has a large segmental headed window and curved iron railings to the pavement. No 50 (Box of Porcelain) has a late-C20 traditional style shop front. No 51 has a mid-C19 porch resting on slender Corinthian style iron columns, with a round headed six-panelled door with fanlight above, enclosed by Tuscan-style pilasters. Its moulded wood entablature continues over the adjacent shop front (no 51a) which probably dates from the late-C19. It has a central entrance flanked by plate glass display windows set in slender, moulded wood frames set on rendered stone stall risers. The rear elevations to nos 49 to 51 (consec) are irregular and faced in stone rubble and/or brick, with timber sashes, and late-C19 and late-C20 lean-to extensions and flat roofed dormers.

INTERIORS: not inspected, but believed to contain a number of late-C18 and C19 features including doors, fireplaces and panelled shutters to the windows.

HISTORY: nos 49-51 (consec) High East Street was built as a terrace of originally four houses by an unknown architect, and are believed to date from c1795. As indicated by Hutchins' map of 1772, it was (partly) built on the site of the former County Gaol, which was demolished shortly after the opening of the new goal in 1792. The terrace is shown on a map of Dorchester of c1835. The house to the far right was demolished in 1983.

SOURCES: Hutchins' map of Dorchester, 1772 (Dorset Record Office) Enclosure map of Dorchester, 1835 (Dorset Record Office) 1st edn Ordnance Survey, 1:2500, published 1889 Photograph taken in 1983 showing the recent demolition of no 52 High East Street (from Dorchester Conservation Archaeology & Landscape, Policies and Guidelines, 1983, published by Dorset County Council and West Dorset District Council)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: nos 49 - 51 (consec) High East Street, Dorchester merit listing at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * They form a good example of a small terrace of late-C18 town houses displaying good quality architectural detailing and design. * They have a prominent position at the far end of Dorchester's main historic shopping street and make a very important contribution to its interest.

Legacy

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104343

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LBS

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