Description

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

SP1954NE CHURCH STREET
604-1/9/53 (West side)
25/10/51 Mason Croft and attached gate and
walls
(Formerly Listed as:
CHURCH STREET
Mason's Croft (premises occupied by
The British Council))
(Formerly Listed as:
CHURCH STREET
Gate piers to Mason's Croft)

GV II

Town house, now used by University of Birmingham, with gate
and walls. c1724, extended to left 1725; 1870s wing to left
end built for Trinity College (qv) converted to music room
c1905. For Nathaniel Mason, lawyer. Brick with ashlar
dressings; hipped renewed tile roof with brick rear stacks.
Double-depth plan. Georgian style.
2 storeys with attic; symmetrical 7-window range with 2-window
addition to left; single-storey, 3-window range to left has
gabled cross wing. Brick plinth and platt band over ground
floor; rusticated ashlar quoins; top modillioned wood cornice.
Entrance has eared architrave with key, pulvinated frieze and
cornice, heavy pegged frame to stained glass overlight and
battened door. Windows have rubbed brick flat arches over
12-pane sashes and 3 hipped dormers with 2-light small-paned
casements.
Addition to left has 2 brick platt bands and top stone-coped
brick cornice; c1900 hipped bay window with 4-light transomed
window with leaded glazing; end stack. Music room has entrance
with canopy to left of 2 cross-casement windows, and hipped
bay windows with 1:5:1-light transomed casement with 3-light
casement to window above; return truncated lateral stacks.
Stone-coped brick walls flank gate with 1740s ashlar Tuscan
piers with cornices and ball finials, plank gate. Returns have
dormers.
Rear has gabled wing with platt bands and tall C20 wing with
c1900 conservatory to right; right end has later additions;
entrance has doorcase with reeded pilasters and cast-iron
trellis porch, 6-flush-panel door; rainwater heads dated TM/
1735 and TM/ 1745.
INTERIOR: room to left end has c1900 furnishings: panelling
with tapering pilasters and cornice, elliptical arches to
window and inglenook fireplace with side window and small
bay,cupboard over pointed arch with copper hood, room to right
end has Jacobean style fireplace; open-well staircase has
closed string, twisted-on-vase balusters, square newels with
pendants and ramped handrail. 1st floor room to left has
fielded-panelled dado, C19 fireplace with later copper hood
and ?de Morgan tiles; other rooms have chamfered beams and C19
fireplaces, and 2-panel and 8-panel doors; attic with C17
door. Music room has curved principals to collar-truss roof,
large segmental-headed fireplace with cartouche with initials:
MC, BV, and flowers; coronae; wainscotting to older rear room.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the home of Marie Corelli, novelist and
pioneer conservationist, from 1901 until her death in 1924.
Gate piers to Mason's Croft listed 9.2.72.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: London: 1966-:
419; Bearman R: Stratford-upon-Avon: A History of its Streets
and Buildings: Nelson: 1988-: 26-7).

Listing NGR: SP1995154628

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26500031

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

• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)