Description

BICESTER MARKET SQUARE
SP5822S
3/65 No.47
30/03/70
GV II

Shown as No.48 on Ordnance Survey map.
Substantial town house, now offices, 1698 on datestone, altered C19 and C20.
Rendered timber framing with stucco dressings; concrete plain-tile and lead
roofs with brick stacks. Double-depth plan. 3 storeys plus attics. Symmetrical
5-window front, with storeybands and rusticated stucco quoins, has 12-pane
sashes to the upper windows, and has a central projecting 4-storey tower with
similar windows at first and second floors, but with 3 keyed oval windows to the
top stage formed in moulded limestone-rectangular frames, the front oval blind
and inscribed "B/IM/1698". The turret has a moulded wooden cornice and an ogee
tiled roof topped by a ball finial and wrought-iron weathervane. The hipped roof
of the main range has a central lead flat and a wooden modillion cornice which
returns on both sides. Ground floor has a central doorway with a moulded
segmental-arched eared stucco architrave, flanked by small-pane shop windows
built out below a deep moulded cornice (probably all C20). Left side has 2
sashes per floor above a C19 ground-floor extension with a large small-pane
window. Right side has some narrower sashes and some altered windows. Rear has 3
truncated stacks, each of 3 linked shafts. Interior: upper floors of tower
retain a dog-leg stair with heavy moulded handrail and closed string,
barleytwist-on-vase balusters, and some turned pendants. With Nos.49 and 50
(q.v.), forms a prominent group on an island site.
(V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.VI, p.18; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p.455).

Listing NGR: SP5855622377

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26298616

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy