No 6 and Attached Wall to the Rear

Details

BRIDGWATER

ST2937SE CASTLE STREET 736-1/10/21 (North side) 24/03/50 No.6 and attached wall to the rear (Formerly Listed as: CASTLE STREET (North side) Nos.6-14 (Even) No.16)

GV I

House, since c1920 part of a nursing home, now vacant. 1723-8 for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. By Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, the Duke's London surveyors. Flemish-bond brick, painted Ham Hill stone: moulded coping to parapet, cornice, rusticated quoin to the right, architraves and doorcase, double Roman tiled roof with brick stacks to gable ends. Double-depth plan with 2-storey C19 rear wing to the right. 3 storeys with cellar; symmetrical 5-window range. The double-pitched roof is filled in between the ridges. A band of yellow brick spans the building between first and second floors and below the parapet. Cyma-moulded segmental-arched architraves are carved from rectangular blocks set into the brickwork; moulded cills and brackets; some crown glass to 6/6-pane sash windows. 3 steps up to C20 six-panel door under a segmental-arched overlight. The doorcase has a projecting dentilled cornice supported by fluted Ionic pilasters to a cyma-moulded architrave, to the left of it is a small segmental arch to the cellar. The right return has a semi-elliptical arch to the cellar, 3 blind windows to each floor on the left with an off-set stack corbelled out above the ground, rising across the blind windows. To the centre a plain Ham Hill stone architrave to a blocked door is set well above street level suggesting former steps; to the right and first-floor centre are 6/6-pane sash windows similar to those at the front but without brackets to the cills; to the second-floor right of centre is a C20 concrete lintel to a metal casement window. INTERIOR: rear of front door has plain panelling, wrought-iron L hinges with spear-head ends, and a large lock. The c1920 door to the inner hall has coloured leaded glass. Main hall has an early C19 semi-elliptical arch to the rear stair hall and a high skirting board. The balusters of the staircase to left of the central hall are blocked in, it has an oak wreathed handrail and curtail step to the first flight and C20 stairs to the first floor; landing has a scrolled frieze to the thickness of the floor; stairs to the second floor are early C18, painted oak, closed string with turned balusters and newels, and a moulded and swept handrail. Ground floor: room to front right has panelled shutters, a moulded dado rail, full-height raised-and-fielded panelling with bolection moulding over the fireplace and wide panels to the rear wall; a box cornice, simple bead-topped skirting boards and wide oak floor boards. The mid C19 painted wood fire-surround has a wide mantelshelf supported by moulded consoles and recessed panels with semicircular ends to top and sides; a panelled jib door to a cupboard to the left has a semicircular arch to an architrave behind the door. C19 foliate ceiling rose. Room to rear right has panelled shutters, some full-height panelling, the inside of a wide C20 cupboard to the rear wall has a dado rail and panelled reveals and soffit, suggesting this was a window before the rear wing was added; and a corner stack without bolection moulding. Room to front left of the ground floor has panelled shutters, a moulded dado rail, full-height wide panels which continue, narrower, into segmental-arched recesses flanking the late C18 Adam-style fireplace; this has a moulded cornice over a frieze of wheatear swags between vases and oval patera to the ends; purple/grey marble inset with a white marble intrados and a keystone with fluted inlay; c1920 brown glazed tile inner surround with gauged semicircular arch. First floor: room to front right has panelled shutters, a moulded dado rail, full-height raised-and-fielded panelling, a moulded cornice, a small blocked stack to the front right corner and panels below seats in the window recesses. Room to rear right, now divided, retains panelled shutters, a dado rail and some full-height panelling. Room to front left has panelled shutters, a dado rail, fine full-height raised-and-fielded panelling with bolection moulding above a heavily moulded fire-surround with a mantelshelf. The late C19 grate and hearth has Art Nouveau-style glazed tiles; to the left a thin 2-panel door to a cupboard which has a planked back and rows of turned wooden pegs. Room to rear left is similar, with a box cornice but now has kitchen fitments to the rear and right walls. Second floor has 3 rooms to the right, that to front is plain, the central room has a heavy chamfered lateral beam and that to rear has a stack to the rear right corner. Room to rear left has an early C18 planked partition to the passage and a square stone fire-surround moulded to the outside and curved inner corners. The rear wing has a repositioned early C18 window to the first floor. The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an important group, unusual for their scale and ambition outside London's West End. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: South and West Somerset: London: 1958-: 100; Colvin H: A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1840: London: 1978-: 428; VCH: Somerset: London: 1992-: 200).

Listing NGR: ST2996337196

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

373837

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: South and West Somerset, (1958), 100
Dunning, R W, The Victoria History of the County of Somerset, (1992), 200
Colvin, H M, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, (1978), 428

End of official list entry

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