39 AND 40, HIGH STREET

Details

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 HIGH STREET 859-1/6/206 (West side) 04/03/52 Nos.39 AND 40

GV II*

Large double house in row. c1730. Flemish bond brickwork, some stone dressings, tile roof, brick stacks. PLAN: an unusually grand wide symmetrical frontage with broad central carriageway and deep rear wings. The principal entrance to each is immediately beyond the back of the covered carriageway, with the staircase flanked by principal rooms on either side, but detailing differs; the basic building shell was clearly completed to the requirements of separate owners at the outset. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement, 5-windowed. Late C19 plate-glass sashes with broad moulded boxes, brick voussoirs with decorative keystone to ovolo-mould cornice, and moulded stone cills. The keystone motif in No.39 differs from that in No.40. The central window at first and second floors is a Palladian unit with original 8:12:8-pane sashes plus radial arched heads. The broad surrounds and sash boxes are moulded, with triple decorative keystones, and moulded cills. The ground floor has, to left of centre, 2 inserted doorways, and there is a blocked former doorway between the windows to the right. Cement rendered plinth, with basement grille to the right. The wide central arch has channelled responds and voussoirs under a continuous plat band; above this is a recessed stone panel. A pair of good panelled gates is hung to the rear of the opening, but the hinge-pins remain in the front opening. Stone modillion cornice, blocking course and moulded stone parapet coping, returned at the ends, stopped to a large brick stack to each gable wall. The throughway is in plain brickwork, with a 6-panel fielded door to each side. At the back of the main block is a further pair of panelled gates to panelled pilasters and a beam. The wing to the left has a 12-pane sash above a similar sash with arched head and a 6-panel fielded door under an arched plain fanlight, and a further large 12-pane sash to the right. Beyond this is a shallow range connected to a returned C18 range, enclosing a small courtyard at the rear of No.39; beyond the courtyard is a 2-storey hipped C18 building with a wide 3-light above a 4-light casement, both with leading. The right wing is similar, but the stair sash is not arched, and to the left of the door is a wide 3-pane light to segmental head. The roof to this wing is hipped at the return. Beyond the wing is a detached 2-storey carriage house. INTERIOR: although this was clearly built as one development, the interiors were separately occupied and fitted out; No.39 has fittings at all levels superior to those in No.40. No.39 has a ground-floor front room fully panelled, with large sunk panels to a moulded edge, and inset quadrant corners, original 6-panel fielded doors in arched moulded architraves with a fluted keyblock, neat modillion cornice, moulded dado rail and skirting. The rear room is less ornate, but has 2 cupboards with arched pairs of panelled doors flanking an C18 fire surround. The generous open-well C18 staircase rises through both floors, and is in polished hardwood, with an open string and swept handrail on slender twisted balusters, 3 to each tread. At the first-floor landings are doors similar to those below, and the front room has an C18 fire surround with eared architrave (the opening blocked). A further C18 fire surround at second floor. No.40 is detailed more economically, with no keyblocks to the doors, and the staircase is a more austere version in painted softwood with turned balusters, a moulded solid string and moulded handrail. This was an unusually grand example of C18 rebuilding in the High Street; it is unfortunate that the glazing bars have been taken out from all except the central, Palladian windows. (Victoria County History: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 118).

Listing NGR: SO8933332961

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

376789

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, (1968), 118

End of official list entry

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