Bridgwater Arts Centre

Details

BRIDGWATER

ST2937SE CASTLE STREET 736-1/10/26 (South side) 24/03/50 Nos.11 AND 13 Bridgwater Arts Centre (Formerly Listed as: CASTLE STREET (South side) Nos.7-13 (Odd))

GV I

Two houses. 1723-8 for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. By Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, the Duke's London surveyors. Red and yellow Flemish-bond brick, Ham Hill stone moulded coping to parapets, cornices, architraves and doorcases, those to No 11 and to the ground floor and first-floor left of No 13 are painted; pantile roofs with brick stacks to party walls. Double-depth plan. 3 storeys and basement; both houses are symmetrical 5-window range. The windows have bracketed cills under slightly shouldered segmental arches to cyma-moulded architraves which are carved into rectangular blocks set into the brickwork. Windows to No 11, with moulded cills, are late C19 horned plate-glass sashes; those to No 13 to the right, with plain cills, are 6/6-pane sashes except 2 on the ground floor left which have plate glass in the lower sashes; thin glazing bars except 3 to the second-floor left which are thick and probably original. Some crown glass survives. Above the doors both houses have a semicircular arched window with block imposts and stepped keystone which reach the cill of the window above. The doorcase of No 11 is probably late C19; engaged Tuscan columns on plinths have blocks and cushions over the capitals; a wide segmental arch has a moulded keystone also beneath a cushion, probably to fill the space between the high, probably original cornice and the doorcase. A late C19 door-frame has a segmental-arched overlight, narrow fixed windows to the sides and to the sides of the 4-panel door which has bolection moulding. The basement has 2 segmental brick arches to right and a wide C19 opening with a bull-nosed brick arch to left. No 13, the end house of the terrace, has a cornice which sweeps up to the right and does not have stone quoins, implying the intention to continue the terrace. The architrave to the door has a similar cyma moulding to that of the windows with a moulded keystone. The C20 eight-panel door has a large plain overlight. 2 segmental brick arches to the basement on left and traces of similar to right. INTERIORS: room to ground-floor right of No 13 is panelled above and below the dado rail, vertical panels to walls, bolection moulding to horizontal panels on the chimney breast, a box cornice, panelled shutters, moulded panels to ceiling with a large central circle framed by rectangles are original, a late C18 Adam-style wooden fireplace has swags to the lintel and marble insets around a duck's nest cast-iron grate. The late C19 door has 4 panels; rear of hall is stone-flagged. No 11 has some C19 high thick skirting boards, C19 moulded cornices and 4-panel doors with added moulding. The staircase has stick balusters, turned newel and a swept rail. One early C18 two-panel door survives on second floor. History: The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an important group, unusual for their scale and ambition outside London's West End. These 2 houses are reputed to be the premises of the oldest arts centre in England. In 1948 the Mars international conference on architecture was held here rather than in London to recognise the event. Walter Gropius, Maxwell Fry and Le Corbusier attended. (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: ST2994037162

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

373842

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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