Details
BRIDGWATER
ST2937SE CASTLE STREET
736-1/10/21 (North side)
24/03/50 No.6
and attached wall to the rear
(Formerly Listed as:
CASTLE STREET
(North side)
Nos.6-14 (Even)
No.16)
GV I
House, since c1920 part of a nursing home, now vacant. 1723-8
for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. By Benjamin Holloway or
Fort and Shepherd, the Duke's London surveyors. Flemish-bond
brick, painted Ham Hill stone: moulded coping to parapet,
cornice, rusticated quoin to the right, architraves and
doorcase, double Roman tiled roof with brick stacks to gable
ends.
Double-depth plan with 2-storey C19 rear wing to the right. 3
storeys with cellar; symmetrical 5-window range. The
double-pitched roof is filled in between the ridges. A band of
yellow brick spans the building between first and second
floors and below the parapet. Cyma-moulded segmental-arched
architraves are carved from rectangular blocks set into the
brickwork; moulded cills and brackets; some crown glass to
6/6-pane sash windows.
3 steps up to C20 six-panel door under a segmental-arched
overlight. The doorcase has a projecting dentilled cornice
supported by fluted Ionic pilasters to a cyma-moulded
architrave, to the left of it is a small segmental arch to the
cellar. The right return has a semi-elliptical arch to the
cellar, 3 blind windows to each floor on the left with an
off-set stack corbelled out above the ground, rising across
the blind windows.
To the centre a plain Ham Hill stone architrave to a blocked
door is set well above street level suggesting former steps;
to the right and first-floor centre are 6/6-pane sash windows
similar to those at the front but without brackets to the
cills; to the second-floor right of centre is a C20 concrete
lintel to a metal casement window.
INTERIOR: rear of front door has plain panelling, wrought-iron
L hinges with spear-head ends, and a large lock. The c1920
door to the inner hall has coloured leaded glass. Main hall
has an early C19 semi-elliptical arch to the rear stair hall
and a high skirting board. The balusters of the staircase to
left of the central hall are blocked in, it has an oak
wreathed handrail and curtail step to the first flight and C20
stairs to the first floor; landing has a scrolled frieze to
the thickness of the floor; stairs to the second floor are
early C18, painted oak, closed string with turned balusters
and newels, and a moulded and swept handrail.
Ground floor: room to front right has panelled shutters, a
moulded dado rail, full-height raised-and-fielded panelling
with bolection moulding over the fireplace and wide panels to
the rear wall; a box cornice, simple bead-topped skirting
boards and wide oak floor boards. The mid C19 painted wood
fire-surround has a wide mantelshelf supported by moulded
consoles and recessed panels with semicircular ends to top and
sides; a panelled jib door to a cupboard to the left has a
semicircular arch to an architrave behind the door. C19
foliate ceiling rose.
Room to rear right has panelled shutters, some full-height
panelling, the inside of a wide C20 cupboard to the rear wall
has a dado rail and panelled reveals and soffit, suggesting
this was a window before the rear wing was added; and a corner
stack without bolection moulding.
Room to front left of the ground floor has panelled shutters,
a moulded dado rail, full-height wide panels which continue,
narrower, into segmental-arched recesses flanking the late C18
Adam-style fireplace; this has a moulded cornice over a frieze
of wheatear swags between vases and oval patera to the ends;
purple/grey marble inset with a white marble intrados and a
keystone with fluted inlay; c1920 brown glazed tile inner
surround with gauged semicircular arch.
First floor: room to front right has panelled shutters, a
moulded dado rail, full-height raised-and-fielded panelling, a
moulded cornice, a small blocked stack to the front right
corner and panels below seats in the window recesses. Room to
rear right, now divided, retains panelled shutters, a dado
rail and some full-height panelling.
Room to front left has panelled shutters, a dado rail, fine
full-height raised-and-fielded panelling with bolection
moulding above a heavily moulded fire-surround with a
mantelshelf. The late C19 grate and hearth has Art
Nouveau-style glazed tiles; to the left a thin 2-panel door to
a cupboard which has a planked back and rows of turned wooden
pegs. Room to rear left is similar, with a box cornice but now
has kitchen fitments to the rear and right walls.
Second floor has 3 rooms to the right, that to front is plain,
the central room has a heavy chamfered lateral beam and that
to rear has a stack to the rear right corner. Room to rear
left has an early C18 planked partition to the passage and a
square stone fire-surround moulded to the outside and curved
inner corners. The rear wing has a repositioned early C18
window to the first floor.
The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an important
group, unusual for their scale and ambition outside London's
West End.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: South and West Somerset:
London: 1958-: 100; Colvin H: A Biographical Dictionary of
British Architects 1660-1840: London: 1978-: 428; VCH:
Somerset: London: 1992-: 200).
Listing NGR: ST2996337196
