Summary
A former house, now bars and offices, of probable C16 date incorporating some earlier fabric and a C17 range, with commercial adaptations of the C18 and C19 including for use as an inn and a drapery.
Reasons for Designation
The former Angel Inn, a former house and inn of probable C16 date incorporating some earlier fabric and a C17 range, with commercial adaptations of the C18 and C19, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it retains substantial fabric dating from before 1700, including timber framing from the C15, C16 and C17, and the unusual survival of early wattle-and-daub nogging between the framing, and floorboards probably of the C15, one of which was cut from a tree known to have been alive in 1086;
* the legibility of the phases of alteration of the C18 and C19 (including reused earlier fabric) adds to the building’s interest;
* it retains good commercial frontages of the 1880s, including an elaborate plasterwork frontage of 1886 by architect TH Allen, and an 1880s decorative terracotta façade incorporating the monogram of a long-established Stockport draper.
History
The earliest standing part of 20-22 Market Place, in the front range of what is now number 20, appears to date from the C16. This site is likely to be the location of ‘Cotterell’s inn’ which was used in the 1640s for sequestrators’ meetings; a Robert Cottrell is also recorded making Easter donations to the parish church from a house on the marketplace, thought to be in this location, in 1619.
The surviving timber framing, and the map evidence, indicate that the building was originally of two low storeys, with a frontage set back around 1m from the current line, and this probably also had gabled attic spaces facing the marketplace. It is likely that it extended further to the south (with its southern bay later replaced by the building which, in 2025, is number 19), and to the north, into what is now number 22. Around 1661, a rear wing was built to this front range, partially extending southwards behind what is now number 19. This includes a group of structural timbers and floorboards felled around that date, but the ceiling boards in this structure come from trees which were already well over 100 years old by the mid-C14 (one has a first measured annual growth ring dating from 1086), and which normal felling practices would suggest were felled and first used during the C14 or C15. These reused boards might represent the earliest building on the site, and are contemporary with the earliest fabric in the nearby Staircase House (National Heritage List for England – NHLE – entry 1356855), where partial crucks have been dated to around 1460.
During the C18, the northern bay was largely rebuilt in brick, up to the current frontage line, reusing earlier roof purlins. A rear range was added along the northern boundary of the plot in the late C18, also reusing earlier purlins, and leaving a lightwell to the north of the rear extensions to the centre bay. A former window at basement level in this space suggests that the lightwell extended right down to this level, forming a small yard here.
Probably in the late C18 or early C19 a new brick frontage was added to the southern two bays, on the current line and extending them to three storeys, with a monopitch roof falling to the rear, behind a parapet. It is possible this was associated with the inn becoming known as the Angel Inn, a name that is recorded as early as 1769. Also probably in the late C18 or early C19, a detached building was erected across the west end of the yard to the rear of number 20. This was probably a function room, and the likely venue of meetings, concerts and theatrical performances which are reported to have taken place at the inn during the early C19, in particular by the Stockport Philharmonic Society. By the survey for the 1851 Ordnance Survey 1:1,056 town plan, this rear building had been removed, however. The same plan shows that the main building had by then been divided into three units, and the lightwell to the rear of number 22 was enclosed at its western end by a full-width range, which abutted the western portion of number 21 (which extended westwards the full length of its plot).
Probably in the mid-C19 the full facade was rendered with a continuous parapet and cornice, and with C17-style hoodmoulds to the windows of the first floor of numbers 20 and 21 (all of which is thought to have been occupied by the Angel Inn), and identical windows of a different design fitted to the second floor of numbers 21 and 22, and first floor of 22. A photograph dating from after 1875 shows twin shopfronts in the ground floor of numbers 21 and 22, with number 22 being occupied by RH Rostron, a firm of woollen drapers who owned several nearby properties, and after whom the nearby street Rostron Brow is named. Number 21 was at least partially occupied by Samuel Chadwick, a wholesale tea and coffee dealer.
The rearwards extension of the ground floor of number 22 over the former lightwell yard took place after the 1873 revision of the 1:1,056 town plan, and probably around the same time that a new western range was built, which intruded eastwards into the lightwell, and also truncated the western end of number 21’s rear range, extending to overlook Angel Yard to the rear of number 20. Around 1880, Rostrons’ premises at number 22 were completely refronted in hard brick and terracotta. Also in the late-C19, a full-height lift shaft was added to the north wall of number 21, also intruding into the former lightwell yard of number 22. These changes suggest some degree of shared ownership of numbers 21 and 22, at least. In 1886 (probably in response to the new façade at Rostrons’) Thomas Allen, the architect of the Bank of Stockport opposite (NHLE 1067154), designed a new façade for the Angel Inn, probably on behalf of the then brewery, Bell and Co. This included a decorative frieze to the second floor, blocking its windows, and introduced angel figures in relief, and new architraves, to the first-floor windows. The ground floor of number 21 remained a separate shop unit, however.
The inn closed in 1951, and by 1959 the ground floor had become a separate shop unit spanning numbers 20 and 21; by 1988 the façade of this shop had been tiled. In the late C20 a modern shopfront was also installed at number 22. In 2014 a community café was installed in the ground floor of numbers 20 and 21 as part of the Portas high street pilot. In 2018 this reopened as the Angel Inn. Around the same time, the ground floor of number 22 was also brought back into use, as a separate bar. In 2024 the upper floors of the whole building were stripped back to the building fabric as part of refurbishment for continued office use.
Details
A former house and inn of probable C16 date incorporating some earlier fabric and a C17 range, with commercial adaptations of the C18 and C19 including for use as an inn (notably by TH Allen in 1886) and a drapery, and now in mixed commercial use.
MATERIALS: timber-framed (retaining some wattle-and-daub nogging), with brick extensions (some rendered) and decorative plaster and terracotta facades, slate roofs, and timber windows.
PLAN: a front range aligned approximately north-south, with east-west rear extensions to the northern two units, which are spanned by a shared western range: number 20 (south end) is roughly trapezoid and stands partially to the rear of its neighbour to the south (which is not included).
EXTERIOR: facing east onto the marketplace, terminating the westward view along ‘the alley’, on the south side of the covered market hall, and opposite the former Bank of Stockport.
The east wall is of two elements. To the left the Angel Inn is of three bays and two storeys plus a blind attic, with a modern shopfront* to the ground floor. Above the shopfront it is plastered, with a first-floor string band and cornice, and moulded parapet with blocked cornice. The first floor is rusticated, with shouldered and eared architraves to the three windows (narrower in the centre), all with winged angel keystones. Above the left window in relief are the words ANGEL INN, flanked by garlanded vases. Further garlands span the two bays to the right, terminating with another garlanded vase. A frieze of spirals and triglyphs spans above. The blind attic storey has cruciform panels with raised borders and bosses in the angles, all spanned by a dentil cornice, with a bossed frieze above, below the parapet cornice.
The right-hand third of the façade is of three narrow bays, and is of three storeys with a modern shopfront* to the ground floor. Above the shopfront it is in hard red brick and terracotta, with pilasters flanking and dividing the narrow outer bays from the centre, decorative panels between the floors, and a balustraded parapet with central semi-circular arch. The central pilasters are decorated with reliefs of plants and flowers. The inter-floor panels have further reliefs, including a central monogram R/ RH (for RH Rostron). The three-light central windows have mullions and narrower outer lights. All four pilasters have wide moulded cornice capitals. The balustrade has urns at either end and over the arch keystone, and the tympanum of the arch has further decoration in relief.
The building is partially abutted to the south by number 19, and number 20’s exposed south façade is largely blind with some small inserted modern windows. The rendered rear of number 20 is of two bays of two storeys, gabled to the right bay which also has a canted bay window to the ground floor. Returning to the left is the south façade of number 21, which is also rendered and of two storeys. At the east end this is of two bays under an eaves gutter; in the left-hand of these bays is a small porch to the basement entrance. At the west end number 21’s south facade is taller and semi-gabled with a half hip, and two windows per floor. Above the first-floor windows is a quatrefoil window with circular central light.
The west façade of numbers 21 and 22 rises above the listed town walls (NHLE 1067203), and is clad in glazed white tiles, with three large windows to each floor.
The building is abutted to the north by the market produce hall (NHLE 1356854), but at the east end there is a narrow triangular area between the produce hall and the north façade of the eastern range of number 22. This façade is gabled and at the second floor retains a small-paned sash window, which is blocked internally. The area has a modern flat roof below this window.
Number 22 has a flat-roofed central area at the first floor which is overlooked from the east and north ranges (this is the former lightwell to the basement). All of the walls surrounding this area are of brick. The blind south wall (the north wall of number 21) is cranked southwards at the east end, and at the west end is the projecting lift shaft, with a monopitch roof falling back to number 21. The low west wall is blind and angled, with a sloping eaves to the roof of the western range. The north wall has inserted windows, except in a shallow recess at its east end, where the second-floor window has a stone sill and segmental arch (with a modern casement). The first-floor window here is an inserted late-C19 sash. This north wall has a phase break with the east wall (the western wall of the east range). This east wall has stacked windows with stone sills and rubbed-brick flat arches. The second-floor window opening has been narrowed.
INTERIOR: the ground floors of numbers 20 and 21 are shared and now form the Angel Inn bar, accessed by a doorway in what was number 21. Most fixtures and finishes are relatively modern. However number 20 retains, at the rear, two hewn ceiling beams which are probably in situ. The easternmost of these two supports the foot of a timber post which forms part of the mid-C17 first-floor structure. Number 21 retains a hewn eastern beam at ground-floor which is probably also in situ, and stop-chamfered. The ground floor of number 22 is also (in 2025) a bar and contains largely modern finishes but does retain some historic features including a five-panelled door accessing the stairs to the first floor, and some late-C19 cast-iron columns supporting the first floor.
The interior of the upper floors were stripped to brick at the time of inspection. To the first floor all three properties are interlinked. The first floor of number 20 retains substantial timber framing. In the south wall of the front range this is probably of early-C16 date with substantial braces and retains some early nogging, probably of strawed plaster over wattle-and-daub. The north wall of the south bay has similar framing (with no surviving nogging), whose eastern post has a likely felling date between 1517 and 1542. The front wall of this bay retains the second-floor former window opening in the ceiling void above the first floor, and an early purlin is retained towards the rear of this bay. The rear south bay dates from around 1661 (one stud in the north wall of this bay was felled in the winter of 1660-1661) but includes some earlier timbers, and retains structural posts and some rails, as well as a remarkable suite of medieval floor-and-ceiling boards. The front wall of the north bay of number 20 retains a large-section structural timber at floor level, of probable late-C18 date, as well as a reused timber above the first-floor window.
The front range of number 21 retains the blocked former second-floor window in the front wall of the ceiling void, and ceiling timbers of probable late-C18 date. The front wall also retains a similar large-section structural timber to that in number 20’s north bay. The party wall with number 20 (south of the stairs) is built around a retained roof truss of probable C16 date, which still carries the sawn-off section of an entrenched middle purlin, and retains its tie-beam and collar, although the tie beam is cut to the rear of the ridge by a doorway. The rear portion of the tie-beam is supported by an arched brace, with brick nogging above and below it. Timber framing also survives below the tie-beam. The rear range of number 21 has a first-floor roof with some late-C19 trusses but hewn purlins, and an eastern king-post truss of hewn timbers which is probably in situ. To the east of this, over the stair to the second floor, is the framework of a half-domed ceiling, of possible early-C19 date. At the west end of the first floor is a doorway accessing the late-C19 rear range spanning numbers 21 and 22, which has no specific features of interest. There are also no historic features elsewhere on the first floor of number 22.
The second floor of number 21 is largely a modern extension. The reused purlins in the eastern half of number 22 have probable felling dates between 1594 and 1614, while the reused purlins in number 22’s northern rear range are likely to date from 1520 to 1545, and the rest of this roof dates from 1758 to 1782. The eastern range retains witness marks of a three-flue chimney breast at the west end of the north wall, and a blocked opening that externally retains a sash window.
There are extensive cellars beneath numbers 21 and 22, which to the front are mostly stone-flagged and retain brick-and-stone steps with vestiges of an early access at the top of the flight, and a chimney breast with arched recess, as well as a C19 barrel drop. Number 21’s rear cellar (accessed from the Angel Inn’s rear yard) has vaulted niches in its east wall, and an access northwards into number 22. Number 22’s cellar includes the former lightwell yard which retains a blocked segmental-arched window in its north wall. The basement of the north range of number 22 retains a wide segmental-arched opening in its north wall, which is blocked by the south basement wall of the market produce hall (NHLE 1356854). The basement of the east range has brick steps with stone treads, rising eastwards into the triangular area between number 22 and the produce hall, with blocked doorways into the ground floor.
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the modern shopfronts to numbers 20, 21 and 22 Market Place are not of special architectural or historic interest. However, any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require listed building consent and this is a matter for the local planning authority to determine.
