St Hughes Chambers

Details

LINCOLN

1941-1/0/10008 CORPORATION STREET 09-MAY-07 (South side) 15-17 St Hughes Chambers

II Offices or lawyers chambers. 1899. Believed to be by WE Mortimer & Son for solicitors A Trotter and A Brook. Red brick with Welsh slate roof, with half timber gabled bays, pargeting and ornamental stonework.

EXTERIOR: Front elevation of 3 storeys and 3 bays with end stacks, and a single bay, 2 1/2 storey wing set back from the street frontage to the left. The street frontage is symmetrical with a central entrance with a stone doorcase formed by flanking pilasters supporting an ornamented stone pediment with a central shield embossed with 'St Hughes Chambers 1899' flanked by pedestals bearing rampant lions. At either end of the elevation there is a further pilaster topped by a rampant lion on a pedestal, similar to those of the doorcase. The ground floor shop windows to either side of the entrance are C20. Above the entrance at first floor level there is a projecting gothic style statue plinth with a projecting domed stone canopy above. Either side there is a bay window with cross mullioned windows, the upper lights being leaded, the lower being plate glass. The narrow side lights to the bays feature glass that curves through 90 degrees, again with plate glass lower lights and leaded upper lights. The bays continue up to the second floor where the windows are leaded without transoms, but again with curved glass side lights. At the centre, at second floor level, there is an oculus window with a grid of metal glazing bars. This window is framed by the wings of a pair of back to back griffins formed in relief by pargeting. The two bay windows are also framed by similar back to back griffins. At the time of the survey, the griffins were in white against a pale blue background. The gables above the bay windows are half timbered with render infill panels, and feature ornamented carved barge boards in arabesque style.

Elevation to left obscured at ground floor level by a separate single storey shop. The first floor has two round headed windows with plate glass lower lights and Georgian bar upper lights. The second floor has a second oculus window framed by griffins continuing the frieze from the front elevation. This frieze extends back to the line of the chimney stack, which breaks slightly forward from the face of the gable. An arabesque pargeted design accentuates the sweep of the chimney stack which breaks the roof line just to the rear of the ridge. Within the line of the chimney stack at second floor level there is a further window. This is a 12 over 12 Georgian style sash with a timber cornice and an extended cill supported by timber consoles. Wing to the rear similarly obscured at ground floor level by a single storey shop. The first floor has a shallow brick arch over a pair of windows with plate glass lower lights and divided upper lights. The second floor features a half timbered half dormer with a pair of Georgian style sashes. The gable wall has two round headed windows similar to those of the first floor of the main building.

INTERIOR: Not inspected, but believed to retain details of interest. Entrance lobby features a geometric tiled floor.

HISTORY: Corporation Street was a new road opened up to link High Street and Hungate in the late C19. It is not shown on the 1889 1:2500 map but is shown on the next edition 1907. The 1901 Ruddock's Directory for the City of Lincoln lists two solicitors at St Hughes Chambers, Corporation Street who were still listed in the 1906 Kelly's Directory, by which time one of them had become the City Coroner.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE St Hughes Chambers is of special architectural interest as a well preserved and carefully detailed late Victorian commercial building in which the qualities of respectability and dependability are suggested by means of architectural display. Features such as the pargetted griffins and decorative bargeboards are displays of wealth, but initially less noticeable features such as the curved glass forming the sidelights to the bay windows is also of special note. The quality of the external detailing is in this instance sufficiently high in a national context to justify listing.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

502368

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry