43 and 45 Westgate Street (the Sword Inn)

Summary

Originally two shops with dwellings above, with 43 later becoming an inn; in the late C20 the ground floors were united to create a large public bar. The pair of buildings date from the C16, with C19, C20, and C21 alterations.

Reasons for Designation

43 and 45 Westgate Street are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as multi-phase buildings originating in the C16 with a significant proportion of historic fabric surviving from their principal periods of development;
* for the legibility of the building’s evolution, where the pair of timber-framed, jettied buildings were each re-fronted in the C19 to form polite facades, then united on the ground floor in the C20.

Historic interest:

* for the long and well-documented history of 43 as a public house serving the commercial thoroughfare;
* as one of an extensive group of listed buildings, which illustrate the historic development and commercial history of one of Gloucester’s principal streets.

History

Westgate Street has long represented a vital thoroughfare in Gloucester. It forms part of the cruciform arrangement of streets which sit in alignment with the original Roman street plan of the city. Of the four principal streets laid out, Westgate Street was particularly important, as it connected the centre of the city with the quays on the River Severn, and with the bridge over the river with road routes to the west into Wales. In the medieval period, Westgate Street formed part of the main commercial hub of the city.

43 and 45 Westgate Street originated in the C16 as two separate buildings. Number 43 is understood to have been a shop and dwelling, before becoming a public house. It dates from the mid-C16, with C19, C20, and C21 alterations. Number 45, also originally a shop and dwelling, dates from the early C16, with early C18, C20, and C21 alterations.

Licensing records show that number 43 had been established as a public house by 1680, and was originally called the Sword. By the mid-C19 it had been renamed the Spirit Vaults, then was later known as the Union Inn. In 1987 the bar was increased in size through its extension into the ground floor of number 45, adjacent. It was renamed the Tailors House soon afterwards: number 45 was once occupied by the tailor JS Pritchard who is said to have been the inspiration for Beatrix Potter’s book ‘The Tailor of Gloucester.’ The name reverted to the Union Inn in 2003, and in the 2010s was renamed the Sword Inn. The ground floor facades date from the late C20.

During the renovation of the adjacent building, 41 Westgate Street (listed at Grade II), the large box framing of the return elevation of the upper floors of number 43 was found to survive.

Details

43 and 45 Westgate Street, originating as domestic and commercial buildings in the C16, with later alterations.

MATERIALS: both buildings are timber framed with rendered facades. Number 43 has a tiled roof, and number 45 slate. Both have brick stacks.

PLAN: both buildings have linear plan forms and face north-east onto Westgate Street, running at right angles to the south-west.

EXTERIOR: number 43, on the left, is a single bay wide, of three storeys and a cellar. The principal elevation is the gable end of the pitched-roof building range. The first floor has a central, five-light, timber-framed casement, and on the second floor is a similar three-light casement. Most of the casement lights have a single, central, horizontal glazing bar. A plain bargeboard lines the gable.

Number 45, on the right, is three window bays wide and has three storeys and an attic. The polite façade conceals the gable-end of the earlier building. The upper floors are plain stuccoed, with a moulded crowning cornice and a parapet. Windows on the first and second floors are six-over-six sashes, and there is a three-over-six sash in the attic; all have architraves and projecting sills. The façade extends beyond the gable of the attic roof, and therefore the outer sashes on the third floor are false, painted on the blockwork. The central sash on the second floor is also false.

The ground floor facade of both sides of the building was remodelled in the late C20, creating a half-glazed, panelled frontage to the public bar; the doorway to the bar room is within number 45. On number 45, there is a C19 fascia, flanked by shaped brackets.

INTERIOR: a small lobby within the footprint of number 45 has joists and timbers which may relate to the original jettied façade; other timber within the front bays of both sides of the building also suggests the building line has been built out from the jetty.

The ground floor of number 43 is open plan and has occasional exposed posts and deep cross beams, some of which have been renewed. The bar runs along the left side and has an oak countertop and ornate front with carved panels with various foliate and geometric mouldings and masks. On the upper floors, the timber framing is almost entirely concealed by C20 linings. The cellar is mostly walled in brick, but some portions in stone rubble may be medieval.

The front two bays of number 45 form part of the bar room, where the party wall with number 43 has been removed. A single post of the timber frame remains, concealed by later cladding. There are exposed posts, beams, and joists, including some replacements and reinforcements. On the upper floors, the framing is mostly concealed behind C20 linings. The attic room in the wing at the rear has exposed, chamfered and jowelled corner posts to the gable-end wall, and part of an arched brace to the principal rafter on the west side of an intermediate truss, otherwise concealed within the roof space. There is an extensive cellar with C18 brick barrel vaults and some stone rubble walling which may be part of an earlier, medieval cellar.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

472626

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Websites
43 Westgate Street, Monument Number: 42442 Glos HER, accessed 31 January 2024 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=42442&resourceID=108
45 Westgate Street, Monument Number: 42443 Glos HER, accessed 31 January 2024 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=42443&resourceID=108
'Union Inn / Tailors House / The Sword, 43-45 Westgate Street, Gloucester', Gloucestershire Pubs and Breweries, accessed 5 February 2024 from https://www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk/pubs/union-inn-tailors-house-the-sword-43-45-westgate-street-gloucester/

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.