Summary
Lodging block constructed during the late C18, now in use as a shop and residential accommodation.
History
The history of Buxton is inextricably linked to the geothermal spring waters which emerge in the centre of the town. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area spans over 6,000 years and the Romans developed a bathing resort there in the C1 AD, the only other Roman spa town in Britain besides Bath. By the late C15, the town’s spring was known as a holy well dedicated to St Anne and a chapel had been built there in her honour. Buxton’s popularity boomed during the late C18 and C19 with ever-increasing numbers of tourists drawn to the purported health-giving properties of the town’s spring water. From around 1780 local landowners, the Dukes of Devonshire, developed Buxton into a fashionable spa town on the model of Bath and over the next century, they commissioned a series of buildings to provide for the hospitality of visitors, including grand townhouses, hotels, cultural venues and thermal baths.
Longden Court was built during the late C18, probably as a lodging block to cater for the growing number of visitors to Buxton at the time. It is first mentioned in the Tithe Award of 1848, at which time it contained chambers for six occupants (rather than being listed as one or two houses). The fairly unadorned external finish and setting within a yard behind the commercial street of Spring Gardens suggests that the lodgings probably catered for visitors of more modest means, or workers employed in the operation or development of the spa town. The building appears to have originally been constructed with a symmetrical principal (north) elevation, with flights of steps providing separate access to the first-floor lodgings. By 1879, a three-storey extension had been added to the east, matching the primary phase in design and materiality. By this time, an extension had also been added to the rear (south). This rear extension survived as late as the 1960s but was subsequently demolished. The 1967 OS map shows a linking passage between the western part of Longden Court and the rear of 54 Spring Gardens, but this link no longer exists. The building is now in use as a shop on the ground floor with residential accommodation above.
Details
Lodging block constructed during the late C18, now in use as a shop and residential accommodation.
MATERIALS: The building’s primary, north elevation is of coursed, squared Millstone Grit while its rear and flank elevations are of uncoursed rubble Millstone Grit, with ashlar sandstone quoins and window and door surrounds. The roof covering is slate.
EXTERIOR: Longden Court is rectangular on plan with its longer, principal elevation facing north. It is of a uniform height of three storeys under a pitched roof punctuated by three, stone chimney stacks. The front (north) and rear (south) elevations are ten irregular bays wide, with the eight westernmost bays of the front elevation forming a symmetrical arrangement. On each half of this arrangement, there is a doorway in the innermost bay with a window immediately adjacent. A flight of stone steps leads to a doorway in the outermost bay of the first floor. There are two windows on the first floor, one adjacent to the door and the other directly over the ground floor doorway. There are two windows on the second floor, one set in line with the ground-floor doorway and the other set slightly staggered above the first-floor doorway. All doorways and windows are formed of unembellished ashlar with flat lintels. The windows across the primary, north elevation contain modern, timber, two-over-two sashes. The ground and first-floor doors are modern. The western flank wall has a single window on the ground floor while the eastern flank wall is blank. The rear, southern elevation has scattered fenestration, with a single ground-floor window in the westernmost bay, six windows to the first floor and three windows to the second floor. The easternmost bay contains a stone mullion window on each floor, with the ground-floor window being blocked up. Most contain timber, multi-pane casement windows.
INTERIOR: The interior is suggested to have been altered and subdivided during the late C20, and the stairs moved from their original position.
Address previously listed as 'Longden Court to rear of Number 54 (Number 54 not included)'
Listing NGR: SK0608473566
