Description

BRIDGWATER

ST2937SE CASTLE STREET
736-1/10/26 (South side)
24/03/50 Nos.11 AND 13
Bridgwater Arts Centre
(Formerly Listed as:
CASTLE STREET
(South side)
Nos.7-13 (Odd))

GV I

Two houses. 1723-8 for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. By
Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, the Duke's London
surveyors. Red and yellow Flemish-bond brick, Ham Hill stone
moulded coping to parapets, cornices, architraves and
doorcases, those to No 11 and to the ground floor and
first-floor left of No 13 are painted; pantile roofs with
brick stacks to party walls. Double-depth plan.
3 storeys and basement; both houses are symmetrical 5-window
range. The windows have bracketed cills under slightly
shouldered segmental arches to cyma-moulded architraves which
are carved into rectangular blocks set into the brickwork.
Windows to No 11, with moulded cills, are late C19 horned
plate-glass sashes; those to No 13 to the right, with plain
cills, are 6/6-pane sashes except 2 on the ground floor left
which have plate glass in the lower sashes; thin glazing bars
except 3 to the second-floor left which are thick and probably
original. Some crown glass survives.
Above the doors both houses have a semicircular arched window
with block imposts and stepped keystone which reach the cill
of the window above. The doorcase of No 11 is probably late
C19; engaged Tuscan columns on plinths have blocks and
cushions over the capitals; a wide segmental arch has a
moulded keystone also beneath a cushion, probably to fill the
space between the high, probably original cornice and the
doorcase. A late C19 door-frame has a segmental-arched
overlight, narrow fixed windows to the sides and to the sides
of the 4-panel door which has bolection moulding.
The basement has 2 segmental brick arches to right and a wide
C19 opening with a bull-nosed brick arch to left. No 13, the
end house of the terrace, has a cornice which sweeps up to the
right and does not have stone quoins, implying the intention
to continue the terrace. The architrave to the door has a
similar cyma moulding to that of the windows with a moulded
keystone. The C20 eight-panel door has a large plain
overlight. 2 segmental brick arches to the basement on left
and traces of similar to right.
INTERIORS: room to ground-floor right of No 13 is panelled
above and below the dado rail, vertical panels to walls,
bolection moulding to horizontal panels on the chimney breast,
a box cornice, panelled shutters, moulded panels to ceiling
with a large central circle framed by rectangles are original,
a late C18 Adam-style wooden fireplace has swags to the lintel
and marble insets around a duck's nest cast-iron grate. The
late C19 door has 4 panels; rear of hall is stone-flagged.
No 11 has some C19 high thick skirting boards, C19 moulded
cornices and 4-panel doors with added moulding. The staircase
has stick balusters, turned newel and a swept rail. One early
C18 two-panel door survives on second floor.
History: The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an
important group, unusual for their scale and ambition outside
London's West End. These 2 houses are reputed to be the
premises of the oldest arts centre in England. In 1948 the
Mars international conference on architecture was held here
rather than in London to recognise the event. Walter Gropius,
Maxwell Fry and Le Corbusier attended.
(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: ST2994037162

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17530012

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

• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)