Summary
Former house, now in commercial use. Late C15 or early C16, with a late C18 or early C19 front elevation. Extensively restored during 1993 to 1994.
Reasons for Designation
64 Westgate Street, Gloucester, dating to the late C15 or early C16 and with later alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* despite some losses, the building retains a good proportion of historic fabric, including timber framing and fragmentary but high-quality paint schemes.
Historic interest:
* the paint schemes are an important and desirable form of wall painting for clients with disposable incomes, typically of middling status, revealing more about the people who lived here;
* as part of the development of Westgate Street in the C15 and C16.
Group value:
* with other C15 and C16 buildings on Westgate Street, many of which are hidden behind later facades, and all of which are listed.
History
The crossing of the River Severn at the west end of Westgate Street was one of the main reasons for the Roman siting of Gloucester, and the street is one of the four main thoroughfares that have their origins in the layout of the Roman settlement. Westgate Street later became the most important street in the medieval city, as both a strategic route and a place to gather and trade. The street contained a wealth of important buildings in the medieval period, some of which survive today along with their early vaulted undercrofts, but many have been rebuilt or re-fronted. The orientation and road level of Westgate Street has also changed over time, and post-medieval and more modern buildings sit amongst the older fabric.
64 Westgate Street lies on the north side of the street, almost directly beside the former site of the Western Gate. The building is likely to have been constructed in the C16 or early C17 but set back from, and probably below, the present building line. The building to its west, number 66, was built as a merchant’s house in the mid-C15.
It is therefore unsurprising that a building in the location of 64 Westgate Street is depicted on a 1780 map of Gloucester. The building was probably re-fronted around this time, with a brick-built bay approximately 1.5m deep added to the historic frontage across all three-floor storeys. At the time of the 1884 Ordnance Survey (OS) Town Plan, the building is shown as being part of 66 Westgate Street. Archival records suggest that the occupier of 64 Westgate Street in 1895 was Alfred Lyes, a baker. By the time of the 1902 OS map, number 64 was again a separate building, and this is also clear in a historic photograph of roughly this date which shows it with an exposed brick façade, many-paned sash windows, and a timber shopfront with a recessed entrance to the left. On the 1927 Goad Fire Plan, the building was in commercial use, but it is also recorded as being of brick, stone or concrete, rather than timber (which 66 Westgate Street is recorded as), showing that the timber frame to number 64 was well-encased within a brick frontage and internal linings. The 1955 OS map again shows that 64 Westgate Street was incorporated with number 66, as ‘66-62’, but by 1970 it was again a separate building, number 64.
The building was extensively repaired and restored from 1993 to 1994. A photograph taken before the works shows the south elevation of the building as rendered, the windows two-pane sashes, and a much-altered shopfront. The restoration works included a whole new roof structure; removal of the render and replacement of stone cills and copings; new sash windows and shopfront (modelled on a photo of 1895) to the front and C17-style timber mullion windows to the rear; repair and replacement of the historic timber-frame structure and floor joists; and the refurbishment of the staircase with new stairs to the cellar and C19-style balusters on the ground to first floor. An internal C19 chimney breast on the first and second floors was recorded before removal. Additionally, it appears that much of the timber frame infill was removed and replaced. It was also recorded that at this time the timber-frame to the west wall was entangled with that of 66 Westgate Street and that this was rectified to separate the two buildings.
It is thought that dendrochronology also took place as part of the restoration project which suggested a late C15 or early C16 build date; and that a Roman tiled pavement was discovered in the cellar and then covered over. The reports and evidence for these discoveries have not currently been identified. The date was narrowed down further when two schemes of wall paintings, most notably on the first floor, were later identified. A rapid analysis of these in 2023 assumed their date to be 1560 to 1660, the period when many such schemes were carried out nationally (see Kirkham in Sources); the wall paintings may be contemporary to the construction of the building or added shortly afterwards. The distinctive ‘orange’ tone of the red lead used in the earliest scheme probably came from the Forest of Dean, and this scheme may have been associated with a lath and plaster ceiling. A later, more elaborate scheme is likely to have continued across the infill panels and timbers and incorporated dado panelling in its design.
Details
Former house, now in commercial use. Late C15 or early C16, with a late C18 or early C19 front elevation. Extensively restored during 1993 to 1994.
MATERIALS: timber-framed structure, with a red-brick façade and a clay tile roof.
PLAN: rectangular, one bay wide and long.
EXTERIOR: the building is of three storeys and a cellar under a pitched roof behind a flat stone-coped parapet. On the principal elevation (south), there is a late-C20 shopfront replicating a late-C19 example to the ground floor, and on the upper floors, there is a single eight-over-eight pane sash window without horns (late-C20 replicating C19) below a gauged brick voussoir lintel. The main elevation is partially obscured by the upper storey of 66 Westgate Street. The rear of the building is inaccessible but is believed to have exposed square-panelled timber framing; the timber mullion windows here are late-C20 replicating C17.
INTERIOR: the ground floor has late-C20 plasterboard linings to the walls to the north and to the south some matchboarding on the west wall, and square-panelled timber framing on the east wall, with a jowl post marking the original front of the building. An east-west beam here is a late-C20 replacement. The shop window bay has a late-C20 multi-pane timber-framed window and entrance door. Ceiling joists to the north of the space are late-C20 replacements, with one substantial earlier chamfered beam positioned east-west centrally, and earlier joists to the front half of the room. A narrow staircase, probably late C18 to early C19, is positioned to the centre-left of the space. The cellar is accessed at the rear-left of the ground floor via a short late-C20 staircase. Within the small cellar, there are substantial east-west cross beams and a further beam at a 45-degree angle, which partially support the floor above. Parts of the west and north walls are rubble stone and may be C16/C17 or earlier. The cellar walls are otherwise C19 and C20 brick and concrete block, and the floor is covered with late-C20 quarry tiles.
The staircase has a late-C20 baluster and rises from the ground floor to a short dog-leg to the first floor. Square-panelled timber framing is exposed on the east wall and two schemes of late C16 or early C17 wall paintings survive on the upper parts of the timbers. The earliest comprises a plain red scheme on the wall timbers and north face of the central east-west ceiling beam. A later, more elaborate scheme painted over the top includes fruit on a diagonal brace to the left, a flower to the brace to the right, and a caryatid on the stud in the centre, clearly intended to be ‘supporting’ the ceiling. Elsewhere on the first floor, some elements of the timber frame and some ceiling joists are late-C20 replacements. On the west wall, there is the scar of a C19 chimney breast, which can also be seen on the second floor.
The staircase continues up from the rear right of the first floor. The timber frame is partially exposed on the east wall, and traces of a black paint scheme can also be seen on the bottom of a diagonal brace by the staircase. Jowl posts and diagonal braces survive on the north wall, but the western wall plate and other elements of the timber frame are late-C20 replacements. The roof structure is exposed; it was replaced in the late C20.
