10 Earsham Street including 1A Broad Street, Bungay, Suffolk

Summary

House dating to the late C18 or early C19 with a billiard room extension built in 1892 to the designs of Bernard Smith.

Description

House dating to the late C18 or early C19 with a billiard room extension built in 1892 to the designs of Bernard Smith.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond with brick dressings and slate roof covering. The billiard room extension is constructed of red brick laid in English bond with oak dressings and has a roof covering of plain tiles with bonnet tiles along the verges.

PLAN: the building occupies a corner plot between Earsham Street and Broad Street. The earliest part (10 Earsham Street) has a roughly square plan with rear C19 extensions which adjoin the billiard room extension. The recessed area in between has a 1970s infill.

EXTERIOR: the early part of the building has three storeys, a shallow-pitched hipped roof with a dentilled brick eaves cornice, and a brick plinth. The principal elevation, which faces onto Earsham Road, has two bays with a front door in the first bay. The neo-classical canopied doorcase is of the reeded and roundel type, and the glazing in the rectangular fanlight has been replaced in the C20, as has the six-panel door. Above the door, the first floor is lit by a six-over-six-pane sash window, flush with the wall, under a gauged brick arch. The second bay is lit on each floor by modern sash windows. That on the ground floor occupies the position of a door that has been bricked up whilst those on the upper floors are in new openings.

The right return, which faces north-east onto Broad Street, is lit on all floors by modern sash windows, those on the first floor having gauged brick arches. Adjoining this to the right is a later C19 two-storey, single-bay extension under a hipped roof, lit by C20 sash windows. Attached to the rear right hand corner of this extension is a short range under a pitched roof clad in plain clay tiles. The façade of this range is obscured by the 1970s infill which consists of a narrow two-storey extension and a covered open-sided entrance to the museum.

Adjoining this to the right is the billiard room extension, a tall building of two storeys under a hipped roof with wide eaves and moulded timber eaves cornice. The wide plaster cornice below is decorated with neo-Jacobean strapwork incorporating the owner’s initials ‘FS’ and the date ‘1892’. Underneath this a band of moulded brick is enriched with guilloche and egg-and-dart. The principal north-east elevation is dominated by a large first-floor oriel window positioned directly underneath the eaves. The seven-light window has moulded wooden glazing bars and a transom and is filled with leaded lights in a swirling foliate pattern. The cornice is delicately dentilled and the wide plaster band below is decorated with elaborate strapwork incorporating figures and masks, and a narrow band of egg-and-dart. The ground floor is lit by three tall three-light windows with wooden frames, all C20 replacements.

The right return (north-west elevation) has a central double-height projection with brick corbels. The left corner of this projection has been rebuilt at ground-floor level in C20 brick and concrete. The ground floor is lit by a continuous row of three square-paned casement windows with wooden glazing bars. This is flanked by doorways under gauged brick arches, the right containing a six-panel door, whilst the left has been bricked up. The five-light mullion window with a transom at first-floor level has the same design of leaded lights and dentilled cornice as the oriel.

The rear elevation is dominated by a projecting staircase bay with a tall decorative stack embellished with brick ribs and an oversailing, dentilled cornice. The staircase bay is lit by narrow sash windows with moulded wooden sills, except those on the upper floor which light the inglenook: these have leaded lights in the same foliate pattern as the façade. To the right, the projecting upper floor has a gable to the left supported by curved wooden brackets with drop finials, and applied timber framing in the form of close studding with decorative panels along the bottom. Below, the wall has been plastered over where previous extensions have been removed. The single-storey, flat-roofed garden corridor, described in The Builder, projects into the garden below the timber framed gable. It has a delicate dentiled cornice and a canted projection in the middle along the north side. At the left end there are panelled double-leaf doors in which the upper panels are filled with elaborate geometric glazing bar patterns. A continuous band of fenestration along the north side consists of four-light windows with a moulded mullion and transom, filled with the geometric glazing already described, each flanked by turned pilasters. The other sides of the corridor have been plastered.

INTERIOR: the front door opens into the staircase hall. This retains the original dogleg staircase with carved tread ends and stick balusters supporting a moulded handrail which terminates in a scroll. The window on the first-floor landing is set within a moulded surround with a panelled soffit and shutters. The building has been converted into three flats. In the two flats inspected, no original or historic fixtures or fittings remained. In the rear extensions, the two first-floor rooms are in use as Bungay Museum. They retain picture rails and plain skirting boards, and one has a blocked up fireplace.

In the 1892 extension, the billiard room is located on the first floor. It is in a highly decorative neo-Jacobean style and survives with a high level of intactness, including the unpainted joinery, parquet floor, brass curtain poles, window ironmongery and wall-mounted gas light fittings. Small square panelling, raised and fielded with moulded edges, lines the lower half of the walls and has a dentilled cornice with scrolls at the corners. The area between the panelling and picture rail is covered in the original green flock wallpaper. Above the picture rail, there is a plaster frieze with a swirling foliate design incorporating Tudor roses, and a modillion cornice is enriched with a dentilled course. The plasterwork ceiling has a delicate strapwork design, and is edged with egg-and-dart and strapwork.

The inglenook is framed by a wide opening with panelled jambs and an entablature consisting of a bolection moulded frieze with strapwork decoration and acanthus leaves at each end, and a modillion cornice enriched with egg-and-dart. It has a panelled ceiling edged with egg-and-dart, and the panels bear an intricate foliate pattern. The fireplace has a moulded stone surround and fender, and a wooden frieze decorated with strapwork and a dentilled cornice. It is complete with grate and fireback, and tiles on the hearth and sides which have a deep yellow flower pattern with a turquoise trim. The elaborate overmantel has a square-within-a-square design with moulded strapwork panels flanked by fluted pilasters with strapwork plinths and scrolled capitals. The oriel window, on the opposite wall to the inglenook, contains a window seat in a panelled alcove.

The ground floor which, according to The Builder, was formerly devoted to additional offices, retains very little of the original joinery, fixtures and fittings. The staircase leading up to the billiard room has been replaced in the C20. The garden corridor, accessed through a wide arch opening with roll mouldings, has a geometric tiled floor.

History

10 Earsham Street was built in the late C18 or early C19. The first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1885 shows that it had by this time become amalgamated with the adjoining five-bay, C18 Earsham House which was listed separately at Grade II in 1972 as 12 Earsham Street. The map shows that the left hand bay of Earsham House was subdivided and had a glasshouse attached to the rear, whilst the rest of the building (including no. 10) was labelled ‘Bank’. The building was no longer labelled a bank on the third edition OS map of 1927. The OS map of 1970 shows that by this time 10 Earsham Street had been taken over by Waveney District Council for use as offices. Bungay Museum was established in 1963 in two first-floor rooms at the rear, and the rest of the building has been converted into flats. The brickwork on the east side of this part of the building has been replaced, possibly around the late C19 or early C20.

The billiard room fronting Broad Street was built in 1892 as an extension to Earsham House when it was the home of Frederick Smith (1833-1903). Smith built St Edmund's Almshouses in Bungay in his capacity as Town Reeve. The billiard room was designed by the architect Bernard Smith FRIBA (1849-1909) who was articled to Frederick Marrable in London before becoming the assistant to Thomas Tenby and then to C H Howell. In 1876-77 Smith won a Royal Academy travelling studentship and in 1879 he was appointed Colonial Engineer in Gibraltar by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He has two listed buildings to his name: the Grade II* listed Roman Catholic Church of St Edmund (1889-1901) in Bungay and its Grade II listed Presbytery (1894), both commissioned by Frederick Smith.

A drawing of the inglenook in the billiard room was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1893 and an illustration of the drawing was published in The Builder (May 20 1893). The accompanying article describes how it was attached to an old house and approached by means of a special staircase and a new garden corridor eight feet wide. Map evidence suggests that this corridor linked up to the glasshouse (since demolished) at the rear of Earsham House. The ground floor rooms were devoted to additional offices. Billiard rooms of this date tended to be removed to the upper floors, due to what were deemed the offensive smells of tobacco and brandy, the clatter of pool balls and men talking. The article mentions that the work was chiefly done by local men, according to the express wish of the owner. The brickwork and tiling were carried out by Messrs Read, the woodwork by Mr Rowe and Mr Foulger, the painting and plumbing by Mr Brownsdon, the ironwork, guttering etc by Mr Richmond – all of Bungay; and the plasterwork by Messrs North of Norwich. The stamped plasterwork on the exterior of the building, the oak wainscoting and overmantel and marble-work was all executed by Messrs Daymond and Son of Westminster, the ornamental glazing, tile-work and wall hangings by Messrs W R Simpson, and the parquetry-work by Messrs Turpin of Bayswater.

Reasons for Listing

10 Earsham Street, a house dating to the late C18 or early C19 with a billiard room extension built in 1892 to the designs of Bernard Smith, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of a late C18/ early C19 townhouse with an elegant stair;
* it has an opulently designed billiard room extension which is unusual for a town house of fairly modest size;
* the hand of the architect is apparent in every detail of the highly decorative treatment, creating a richly appointed and finely crafted billiard room of architectural distinction;
* the billiard room has survived with a remarkable degree of intactness, down to the flock wallpaper and gas light fittings, giving a vivid impression of a room of this type dating to the late C19.

Group value:

* the house is located in the historic centre of Bungay and is surrounded by a large number of listed buildings with which it has strong group value, particularly 12 Earsham Street.

External Links

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