Summary
42-42a Market Place form part of the C19 redevelopment of the Market Place in Boston. This part of the Market Place is located on its western side and the building forms part of a curved terrace of three storey and attic houses facing onto the Market Place, now all in commercial use and with C20 shop fronts at ground floor level.
Reasons for Designation
* Historic interest: 42-42a Market Place form part of a significant late C18 and early C19 remodelling of Boston’s historic Market Place, and, together with other major developments such as the Assembly Rooms, mark a notable period in the town’s history when it sought to re-establish its commercial pre-eminence as both port and market centre.
* Architectural interest: 42-42a Market Place are part of an incremental development of town houses and shops on the western side of the Market Place. Although the interior has undergone further alteration, in common with its immediate neighbours, it retains much of its external detail and continues to form part of the varied architectural frame to the Market Place.
* Group Value: 42-42a Market Place have group value with other listed buildings in the Market Place and St Botolph's Church.
History
Despite some fluctuation in its fortunes Boston remained a prosperous port and market town from the middle ages into the C19, its social, economic and political history reflected in its town plan and buildings. From the C12 to the C15 it was one of the busiest ports in England, its wealth based principally on the trade in wool, cloth and luxury goods. Boston's market was first recorded between 1125 and 1135, and the annual fair was one of the great trade fairs of Europe. The medieval town grew around streets on either side of the River Witham, now the High Street to the west and South Street to the east. The latter opens to a wide market place to the north, from which narrow medieval lanes travel east and north to Church Street, St Botolph's Church and Wormgate.
The medieval period is represented by fragments of the Dominican friary surviving as the Blackfriars Arts Centre (Grade II*) on Spain Lane, the only visible evidence of the four friaries established in the town in the C12 and C13. Evidence of the town's thriving C14 and C15 engagement in the North Sea wool trade survives in the Guildhall (Grade I) of the Guild of St Mary, one of several religious guilds in the town at this period. Following the incorporation of Boston as a borough in 1545 and the dissolution of the religious guilds two years later, the assets of the Guild of St Mary, including the Guildhall, were transferred to the Corporation. Later C18 fen drainage and the construction of the Grand Sluice realised the value of the Corporation's estate, the increase in income funding significant building projects in the town, including the Exchange Buildings of 1770-1772 (formerly the Corporation Buildings) to the west of the Market Place (Grade II*). This renewed prosperity continued into the first half of the C19, when agricultural enclosure generated new wealth from a now highly productive rural hinterland. The corporation invested in further public building, notably the Assembly Rooms, completed in 1822 (Grade II*) to the north of the Exchange Buildings. The Grade II listed buildings that form an irregular terrace, 42-50 Market Place, also date to the first half of the C19, as do eight Grade II listed warehouses. Between the mid-C18 and mid-C19 the town's suburbs grew to the north-west and east of the Market Place, with limited development to the west of the river.
Boston continued to thrive economically until the construction of the railway in 1848; this brought a station and growth to the west of the town, but withdrew outgoing goods from the port. A new dock constructed by the corporation to the south of the town in 1884 renewed seaborne trade and brought development to an area of previously agricultural land. By the late C19 the town had reached almost its present extent. Although there was new building within the town in the C20, notably the construction of the inner ring road, John Adams Way, much historic fabric has been retained; this is reflected in the comprehensive coverage of Boston in the National Heritage List for England.
42-42a Market Place were built as part of a terrace of dwellings facing onto the Market Place in the early C19. The building was later adapted for use as a shop, in common with other premises in the terrace. The original domestic plan form has been considerably changed by commercial usage, and the interior has been remodelled, with the consequential loss of original fabric, fixtures and fittings. The front of the building retains its original pattern of openings at first floor and attic levels. The ground floor now accommodates a late-C20 display frontage, behind which is a modern restaurant interior with food preparation, servery and seating areas. The building was added to the statutory List in February 1975, and is located within the Boston Conservation Area.
Details
MATERIALS: 42-42a Market Place are built of red brick with stone dressings now painted on the front elevation with a plain tile roof covering to the frontage range. The extensions to the rear have flat roofs.
PLAN: The building is L-shaped on plan, the rear range being a C20 extension.
EXTERIOR: The building is of three storeys with attics, and has a three bay front with a C20 shop front. There are three plain sash windows to the first floor and two smaller openings to the upper floor, all set below wedge lintels. At eaves level there is a shallow dentilled wooden cornice, and there are red-brick gable chimney stacks, that to the right-hand gable truncated. The attic storey had two gabled dormer windows with plain, sash window frames, lead sheet coverings and rendered cheeks.
INTERIOR: The interior has been radically altered, with the original ground-floor plan barely discernable, the interior having been completely remodelled to accommodate restaurant facilities. A remodelled and relocated stair leads to the upper floors. The upper levels are less radically altered, and the upper flights of a C19 turned baluster stair survive, although the balusters are now boarded over. The upper floor rooms retain chimney breasts but the fireplaces have been removed. These rooms are used as storage areas and retain moulded architraves and some moulded cornice work, but all original doors have been removed. The flight of stairs between first and second floors runs across a now blocked semi-circular arch-headed recess, suggesting that the building may have been inter-connected with its attached neighbour prior to an earlier stage of remodelling.
