11 Westgate Street

Summary

Formerly a shop and dwelling, now offices, dating to the early C19 with a later conversion and extension to accommodate a gentlemen's club (The Gloucester Club) in about 1875. The east wall that flanks the pedestrian entry to Mercer's Passage incorporates a length of medieval stone rubble wall believed to incorporate reused Roman masonry. There were C20 alterations principally to ground floor, and extensions at the rear. The shopfront was replaced, and interior alterations were undertaken in the early C21.

Reasons for Designation

11 Westgate Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for its well-proportioned frontage in a neoclassical style.

Historic interest:

* as an early-C19 building that contributes to and illustrates the historical development of Westgate Street, one of the principal streets in Gloucester.

History

In the late C14 Gloucester’s trade industry – principally in corn and wine – enriched a small but influential group of merchants who monopolised official positions of the city. By the early C17 merchants were displaying their prosperity in new or enlarged houses located within the central parishes. Their proximity to the focus of communal life and centre of the borough administration was an added benefit. A few notable examples of these merchant’s houses survive along Westgate Street as testaments to the area’s trading activity and the prominence of these wealthy officeholders throughout the late medieval and early modern periods.

Details

Formerly a shop and dwelling, now offices, dating to the early C19 with a later conversion and extension to accommodate a gentlemen's club (The Gloucester Club) in about 1875. The east wall that flanks the pedestrian entry to Mercer's Passage incorporates a length of medieval stone rubble wall believed to incorporate reused Roman masonry. There were C20 alterations principally to ground floor, and extensions at the rear. The shopfront was replaced, and interior alterations were undertaken in the early C21.

MATERIALS: brick with a stuccoed front and slate roof.

EXTERIOR: four storeys high and has a cellar. The principal elevation is two bays wide above the ground floor glazed and timber-framed shopfront. There is a moulded band at second-floor level, a plain band at third-floor level, and a moulded crowning cornice with blocking course. The upper floors have plain sash windows in openings framed by plain, slightly raised architraves with roundel indented at each upper angle and projecting stone sills. The sills to the second and third floor windows are supported on small, moulded end brackets.

INTERIOR: the ground floor was refitted in 2018. Behind the shop, there is a stair well with an early C19 dog-leg staircase, including stick balusters and ramped handrail. On the first floor two rooms were linked in c1875 to form a single large reception room for the Gloucester Club, elaborately decorated in a French C18 style, with moulded plaster panels on the walls and ceilings, moulded marble chimney pieces and joinery. There exists some early C19 joinery in other rooms.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

472591

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Brooks, A, Verey, D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire II: The Vale And Forest of Dean, (2002), 472-479

End of official list entry

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