Summary
Former merchant’s house and house, now in commercial use. Number 74 dates to the mid-C15 with later alterations, and has a C15 or earlier cellar. Number 76 has a late-C12 undercroft with remains of a C14 merchant’s house above with early-C16 alterations. Both buildings were re-fronted and remodelled in around 1900. Further alterations, including new shopfronts, in the C20 and C21.
Reasons for Designation
74 and 76 Westgate Street, Gloucester, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for the surviving timber framing to the C14 merchant’s house at the rear of number 76;
* the late-C12 undercroft to number 76 is considered to be one of the best examples on Westgate Street, and is noted for its fine decoration and survival of primary doors and windows;
* despite some losses, the buildings retain a good proportion of historic fabric from the late C12 through to the early C20.
Historic interest:
* the ownership and use of the buildings is well documented, and adds to our understanding of the people who were living and working in this part of Gloucester;
* as part of the development of Westgate Street from the late C12 through to the C20.
Group value:
* with other early buildings on Westgate Street, many of which are hidden behind later façades, and most 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.
The early history of the plots and buildings at 74 and 76 Westgate Street was thoroughly researched in 2023 (see Lloyd & Lane in Sources), with much derived from a 1455 Rental and pre-C19 mapping. Only the key points are laid out here.
74 and 76 Westgate Street lie on the north side of the street, number 74 to the east and number 76 to the west. Today they appear as one building, unified by 1900 with a brick frontage, but the two buildings were clearly separate plots for much of their documented history.
The plot on which 74 Westgate Street now stands was held by Adam son of Roger in the mid-C13, and then by Audeon of Windsor ‘by the hands of’ William Windsor in the late C13 and early C14. The plot was later owned by St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Number 74 was said to be ‘newly built’ in 1455, when it was in the holding of Thomas Bridge, and occupied John House, a tailor. In 1566 the building was let to Henry Machin, and the following year was let to his daughter Margaret, who assigned it to William Nurse before 1590. In 1612 it was re-let to William Abbotts, who had been a subtenant since 1596. In 1646 it was let to John Wood as a tenement with ‘solars, cellars, shops, taverns, chambers, entries, ways, backsides and courts’, although this list may have been standard to ensure that all of the property at site was included. The property was approximately 6.2 meters (20ft 4in) wide at the front, and approximately 5.6 meters (18ft 6in) to the rear. In 1672, Daniel Collins paid tax for two hearths at the property, and in 1684 John Tyler, a shoemaker, held the property, renewing the lease in 1689. It was still hospital property in 1826.
The land that today corresponds to 76 Westgate Street was held by William the Spicer, according to the 1455 Rental, which also records that the building there was held by a brewer, Thomas Frankombe, as a tenant of William Botteler’s son. The undercroft was expressly noted in the rental as belonging to Usk Priory in Monmouthshire and at some point, the plot was a tenement of Aconbury Priory. These references suggest that the land (tenement), building and undercroft were in separate occupation and ownerships. In 1549 William Edwards, a tailor, lived there, and in 1567 Thomas Weeks occupied the plot. In the C17, occupation seems to have been dominated by a family with the name Capel: Alderman Christopher lived there in 1612 and Alderman William in 1646; in 1672 Mary Capel paid tax on eight hearths at the site; in 1689 Richard Capel was the occupier. In the early C17 the property is recorded as including a court to the rear and is likely to have been rented by the occupier from the city. It is also likely that there was access to the court from the surrounding streets to the north, which was gradually built upon and had disappeared by the mid-C19. By this time, 76 Westgate Street had been extended back to the abbey precinct wall.
The 1852 Board of Health map continues to show the two buildings as two properties: number 74 is marked as ‘The Bunch of Grapes’ public house, and the buildings remain separate at the time of the 1884 Ordnance Survey (OS) Town Plan. A historic photograph from around 1860 shows 74 Westgate Street as a timber-framed building of three jetties and two gables; whilst number 76 appears to have a plain brick frontage with three window bays. By the time of the 1902 OS, the two buildings had amalgamated, which ties in with the style and materials of the brick frontage which survives today. The northern part of number 76 was replaced with a commercial building in the 1990s, the shopfronts were replaced, and the building refurbished in the early C21.
Details
Former merchant’s house and house, now in commercial use. Number 74 dates to the mid-C15 with later alterations, and has a C15 or earlier cellar. Number 76 has a late-C12 undercroft with remains of a C14 merchant’s house above with early-C16 alterations. Both buildings were re-fronted and remodelled in around 1900. Further alterations, including new shopfronts, in the C20 and C21.
MATERIALS: stone undercroft to number 76 with timber-framed structures above; roofs of slate, with corrugated sheet to the rear of number 76; later red-brick façade.
PLAN: front east-west range of around 1900 with adjoining earlier cross (north-south) ranges to the rear. The undercroft to number 76 extends further north than the cellar below number 74 but is now inaccessible.
EXTERIOR: the buildings display a three-storey unified front, behind which both buildings are of three storeys with undercrofts, and the rear wing of number 76 is two storeys with an attic and undercroft. The front elevation is of red brick with yellow-brick detailing, four identical bays wide, defined by shallow recesses separated by narrow yellow-brick pilasters supporting cambered arches with dentil moulding. At the top of the elevation is a brick cornice and a panelled parapet with yellow-brick dentils below the coping. The ground floor has early-C21 timber shopfronts. On the first floor are four timber sash-windows with sidelights and vertical glazing bars, and on the second floor, similar sashes with sidelights. All the windows are in segmental arched heads with voussoir bricks set in alternating colours, yellow and black. The side elevations adjoin the neighbouring buildings, and the rear elevations are largely obscured by later construction to the north of the site.
INTERIOR: although now one building behind a unified brick façade, the descriptions below are separated into number 74 and number 76 for ease of reference.
Above ground, the interior of number 74 has been altered for commercial use and no historic fabric is visible. At the centre-left of the ground floor room is a floor hatch which gives access to the undercroft and cellar below the buildings. The cellar below number 74 has rubble-stone walls and is now connected to the undercroft below number 76. The cellar measures approximately 7.8m north-south by around 5m wide. The southern wall is on the line of Westgate Street and contains a blocked opening which may have led on to the street. In the south-east corner is a small stone buttress, and in the north-east corner is a splayed recess with a curved back, possibly for a small staircase, suggesting that there was access from the ground floor above. The eastern wall of the cellar has two blocked openings, possibly originally for storage. On the north wall to the left is a stone recess reminiscent of a chimney flue, but such heating was uncommon in undercrofts and cellars. In the south-east corner of the cellar is a large capstone slab, possibly covering a well. In the centre of the cellar are two C20 brick piers and the floor above has been reinforced with steel joists. The floor is laid with bricks.
There is also no historic fabric visible in the interior of the ground floor of number 76. On the first floor, early-C16 ceiling beams associated with the floor inserted into the former hall wing intersect and have deep ovolo mouldings. An early-C19 panelled door leads from the 1900 bay at the front of the building to the ‘attic’ of the former C14 hall-wing at the rear. This comprises a three-bay timber roof structure. At the south end is the timber-framed former south gable of the hall with three vertical struts between the tie beam and collar, and an arch cut into the western end to accommodate the current access door. In the centre, a cambered tie beam and jowled bay post set into the west wall have mortice, perhaps for curved braces to form a trefoil arch beneath the beam. From the centre-top of the tie beam, angled struts connect to the principal rafters; the soffits of the struts and rafters are cut to form an open quatrefoil with ogee curves. The northern truss is modern with a tie beam. The north gable is brick and probably dates to the early C20. The underside of the roof was lined below the corrugated-sheet roof in the C20.
Below the rear wing of number 76 (below the former great hall), and aligned north-south, is a fully subterranean late-C12 vaulted stone undercroft measuring approximately 4.5m wide by 15m in length, and approximately 2m high to the apex of its barrel vault. The undercroft was originally divided into four bays by transverse rib vaulting. The two northernmost ribs survive intact, with broad chamfers and triangular or diagonal-cut stops, some stepped and some ornamented with a roll. On the west side, the ribs spring from engaged, rectangular, chamfered pilasters. On the east side, the ribs spring from a corbel projecting from the wall line with no pilaster. The corbels consist of a rectangular chamfered impost, supported by a scalloped capital, beneath which there is roll moulding, a small colonnette, more roll moulding, and then the colonnette dies away in the wall well above ground. The third rib from the north remains partially in situ in part, and springs from a scalloped capital. A surviving corbel is the only part remaining from the fourth rib from the north. The shafts and the wall on the west side lean outwards and could be an attempt to brace a lean once it had occurred, hence why there are no pilasters on the vertically true eastern wall. In the south-western corner of the undercroft, next to an altered brick-stepped opening on to the street, there are the remains of a sloping stone plinth against the western wall; this may have supported a direct entrance on to Westgate Street. In the north wall of the undercroft, at its west end, there is a C12 round-arched doorway with a dressed stone rebate, now blocked. The doorway reveals are deep and faced in coursed, dressed stone extending to the arched door head, which is comprised of side-stacked stones. This doorway was open in September 1972, when photographs were taken looking through to a further subterranean space to the north, possibly a medieval cellar built on a courtyard which may have been the main entrance to the undercroft. To the east of the round-arched doorway is a blocked rectangular opening with dressed-stone reveals; it is splayed on one side and has a low sill and timber lintel which cuts across a moulded and chamfered stone jamb to the left. In 1972, this central opening was open, along with the doorway to the west. To the east again is a further opening, with a sloping stone cill, splayed jambs, flat stone lintel, and dressed-stone reveals. All these surviving openings are packed into the northern wall which suggests that light and access were needed, or could only be achieved, from that direction. Along the line of the third rib from the north, there is a C18 or C19 brick partition with a doorway and window (now blocked). There is a further brick arcade south of the partition, built against the east wall of the undercroft; and a brick wall built against the south wall, creating a deep recess, now blocked. To the west of this, nine brick steps descend from Westgate Street into the undercroft; they are post-medieval. There are various other later brick and stone insertions throughout the undercroft. A thorough description and analysis of the undercroft below number 76 and cellar below number 74 can be read in Lloyd & Lane (see Sources).
