Description

SS5147
853-1/6/64

ILFRACOMBE
HIGH STREET
(North side)
No.26

GV
II

Shop. Dated 1890. Partly painted, (probably over stone),
partly exposed red brick; second storey is in wood and
cast-iron. Right-side wall, (top is visible from street), of
red brick. Roof not visible from street. Red brick chimney on
right-side wall; multi-flued chimney on left side wall.
EXTERIOR: striking vertically-articulated facade, probably on
iron frame and characteristic of advanced commercial
architecture of the period.
4 storeys. 5-window front. Late C20 shopfront in ground
storey. Plain second storey display windows with transom
lights, slightly set back behind a continuous iron arcade of
round arches, these springing from columns with enriched
capitals; the spandrels of the arches filled with open
tracery. Wooden pilaster at either end with corbelled block at
the top, flanking a blindcase. On the centre of the latter
stands an ornate iron bracket intended to carry a sign.
Close-set third and fourth storey windows flanked and
separated by red brick pilasters, these being surmounted by
corbelled, panelled blocks, upon which stand variously tall
ball finials or low curved pediments. Between the blocks runs
a moulded top cornice and parapet, the latter pierced by a
serious of round-headed panels. Sash windows in third and
fourth storeys, those in third storey plain but with transom
lights of coloured leaded glass, those in fourth storey with
12-paned upper sashes. Middle window in third storey has large
triangular pediment on brackets, spanning the brick piers at
either side; in the centre of the pediment is the date 1890.
INTERIOR: ground-floor completely altered.
HISTORY: the Ilfracombe Observer and North Devon Review,
1.9.1891 and 15.12.1891, carries advertisements for J Pugsley
& Sons, drapers, milliners, dress-makers, tailors, hatters,
hosiers and house furnishers, who originally occupied the
building; also an engraving of the original front with
2-storeyed display window.
The building makes a good group with Nos 27-32 High Street
(qv), which adjoin it on the west, mostly later C19 commercial
architecture of a remarkably ambitious scale for a town of
this size. Included for group value.
(The Ilfracombe Observer and North Devon Review: 1.9.91;
15.12.91).

Listing NGR: SS5180947617

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26498592

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)