BRIDGWATER ARTS CENTRE

BRIDGWATER ARTS CENTRE, 11 AND 13, CASTLE STREET

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1197363
Date first listed:: 24-Mar-1950
List Entry Name:: BRIDGWATER ARTS CENTRE
Statutory Address:: BRIDGWATER ARTS CENTRE, 11 AND 13, CASTLE STREET

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Date:: 2001-02-06
Reference:: IOE01/02488/12
Rights:: © Mrs Paulette Bjergfelt. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1197363
Date first listed:: 24-Mar-1950
Date of most recent amendment:: 31-Jan-1994
List Entry Name:: BRIDGWATER ARTS CENTRE
Statutory Address 1:: BRIDGWATER ARTS CENTRE, 11 AND 13, CASTLE STREET

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: BRIDGWATER ARTS CENTRE, 11 AND 13, CASTLE STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Somerset (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Bridgwater
National Grid Reference:: ST 29940 37162

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

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.