Former Canal Warehouse, 19-23 Bridge Street

Summary

A former warehouse with ground floor shop and office units, built in 1865 to the designs of Bellamy and Hardy.

Reasons for Designation

The former canal warehouse at 19-23 Bridge Street, Horncastle, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest:

* as an interesting example of a multiuse canal warehouse with street level shops, whose relationship with the canal remains clearly discernible in the architecture of the building;

* for the quality of the design by accomplished local architectural practice, Bellamy and Hardy, which uses modest materials to their best advantage, elevating the building beyond utility.

Historic Interest:

* for illustrating the sustained importance of the canal network to trade in mid-C19 Horncastle.

History

The completion of the Horncastle Navigation in 1802 brought new possibilities for the town to trade local agricultural produce. Commodities such as Horncastle Wool, hides and malt, could be transported via river and canal to the East Midlands and to the mills of Leeds, Wakefield and Manchester. During this period of prosperity in the first half of the C19, warehousing developed adjacent to the canal and the population of Horncastle doubled in size. Though the railway arrived in Horncastle in 1855, warehouses continued to be built along the canal in the years that followed.

The building at 19-23 Bridge Street was erected in 1865 as a purpose-built canal warehouse with shops and offices on the ground floor. It was built for Thomas Frederick Pogson of Horncastle, a butcher and wool dealer, and the landlord of the adjacent Fighting Cocks Inn. The building was designed by Bellamy and Hardy of Lincoln, who went on to design the Horncastle Dispensary (later the War Memorial Hospital) in 1866 and the Punch House in 1868. The warehouse was built by local builders Pike, Wright and Charles Carter for the sum of £798.

The canal closed in 1889, and around the end of the C19 the signage on the warehouse at 19-23 Bridge Street advertised Alfred Cammack’s cycle agency and repairs. At this time the building featured a timber lucarne window to the first and second floor of the east elevation. This had been removed by the mid C20 by which time the warehouse featured signage for ‘Francis Wiley Ltd, Wool Merchants, Bradford’ which remained on the building until at least 1966. The building was occupied by furniture dealers, A Hare and Sons, from around 1970 until they ceased trading in 2022.

Details

A former warehouse with ground floor shop and office units, built in 1865 to the designs of Bellamy and Hardy.

MATERIALS: the building is constructed of red brick with buff brick and stone dressings, under a pitched concrete tile roof.

PLAN: the building sits on a wedge-shaped site between the canal and Bridge Street. It has a trapezoid plan set over three floors.

EXTERIOR: the building is of six bays, set over three storeys defined by string courses, and curved north-east and north-west corner bays. The principal elevation faces Bridge Street where the ground floor is divided into two units, each with their own entrances and shop fronts. The western shop front features a pair of large four-over-four sliding sash shop windows, with a recessed glazed door with top light to the left. There are transom lights above each window, the one to the west featuring a decorative cast iron grille. The shop front is divided by chamfered pilasters topped with cast iron fleur-de-lys, the emblem of Lincoln. Above is a corbelled cornice. The east shop front features a door with arched top light and two large windows to the right of this: one arched, and one rectangular set within a projecting, moulded frame. At the head of each is a prominent keystone. The first and second floors are delineated by brick dentil courses. The two upper floors each feature six recessed windows in buff brick surrounds. Those to the first-floor feature sashes with margin lights and keystones above. String courses form the heads and sill to the pairs of casements on the second floor which feature arched glazing. The projecting eaves cornice above is supported by buff brick corbels.

The curved corner bays are slightly recessed, both having painted signage advertising A Hare and Sons to the first floor, and a carved date stone dated 1865 flanked by buff brick panels to the second floor. The ground floor of the east corner bay features a fixed window with glazing bars, while there is a pair of glazed doors with a top light featuring a decorative cast iron grille to the west.

The east elevation is the narrowest. The first floor features an arched doorway with keystone, while the blank floors above have brickwork scarring between the string courses. The shop window on the ground floor of the west elevation matches those of the western shop unit, with the windows above also echoing those to the north elevation. There is a large arched doorway with keystone head to the centre of the west elevation. Above are two loading doors, one to each floor, both slightly offset from one another and with exposed lintels. Above again is a gabled dormer featuring a projecting hoist mechanism.

The south elevation abuts the edge of the canal and features a pair of gabled frontages. Each has arched windows to the ground floor, the west side having a central arched doorway while the east side features a central arched window. The windows above are set within segmental arched brick heads, with three six-over-six sashes to the first floors and two pairs of casements to the second. Both gables feature tumbled brick eaves.

INTERIOR: it is understood that the upper floors are divided into two rooms, with the western unit on the ground floor further subdivided. A cast iron chimney piece is understood to survive to the ground floor, and the longitudinal beams to the ground and first floors are supported on cast iron pillars.

Sources

Websites
Horncastle History & Heritage Society: Photo Gallery, accessed 9 November 2023 from http://www.horncastlecivic.org.uk/photogallery/index.php?thisgallery=Bridge%20Street

Other
The Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury, 23 December 1864, p5.
Lincolnshire County Council and Historic England, 'Lincolnshire Extensive Urban Survey: Horncastle', 2021, p11.
East Lindsey District Council and QuBE3, Horncastle Conservation Area Appraisal, 2008, p10.

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