Beaufort House, Gloucester, Gloucestershire

Summary

Part of an early C19 terraced row in the Classical style, associated with the Gloucester Spa Company and formerly serving as two houses. In the C21 it is under a single business use.

Description

Offices, formerly dwellings of early C19 date built for Gloucester Spa Company, with late C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: constructed of rendered brick with hipped slate roofs.

PLAN: Beaufort House forms the western end of Beaufort Buildings, a terraced row facing Spa Road. The west end of the building fronts Brunswick Road and is of three storeys plus basement. Its return end is attached to a two storey plus basement wing and, furthest east, the three storey plus basement block that was formerly 1 Beaufort Buildings. To the rear (north) of the former 1 Beaufort Buildings is a single-storey brick addition and a three-storey plus basement block.

EXTERIOR: the C19 buildings are of two phases of construction across a corner site. Both fronts are designed in a stripped back Regency style with timber sashes and projecting stone sills in stuccoed elevations. The Brunswick Road façade is of three unequally spaced bays and the Spa Road elevation of seven bays (1:3:3). The Brunswick Road block and its rear wing (facing Spa Road) have an offset plinth with scribed masonry joints, a raised band at first-floor level, and crowning entablatures with frieze bands and coped parapets. The Brunswick Road front has a single-storey entrance portico, offset to the left of centre, in the Roman Doric order with a pair of columns at each outer corner supporting an entablature with a blocking course. Within the portico is a recessed entrance doorway with a fanlight. To each side of the portico is a six-over-six sash with moulded architraves, and there are three sashes to both the first floor (six-over-six) and second floor (three-over-six). The first floor openings have moulded architraves. On the return ends on each floor is a sash with openings similar to those on the front. The sashes to the semi-basement have wrought-iron window guards. The wing to Spa Road has three six-over-six sashes in plain openings to each floor. To the right, the former 1 Beaufort Buildings has a symmetrical front of three bays with a raised band at first-floor level and a crowning cornice. To the ground floor is a central entrance porch in the Ionic order with pairs of columns at the outer corners supporting entablature with a pulvinated frieze, modillion cornice, and a blocking course. The doorway, approached by a flight of stone steps through the porch, is framed with side-lights and a segmental arch enclosing a decorative metal fanlight, and a fielded six-panel door. On either side of the portico, and to the first floor left and right, the sashes are tripartite with four-pane margin glazing. To the second floor the three sashes are shorter.

To the left of the rear (north) elevation is a single storey brick range with a canted bay. It has a central door with stone architrave and a plain door case with sidelights and a fanlight. Behind it is the rear stuccoed elevation of the former 1 Beaufort Buildings with sashes to first and second floors. To the right is a rendered three storey plus basement block with horned six-over-six sashes to each floor, arranged as 3:2. The basement has a lateral external stair that is covered in a corrugated metal shelter.

INTERIOR: the interiors of the early C19 buildings were refitted as offices in 1987 and the layout has had some reordering. It retains joinery to principal rooms and corridors including moulded window and door architraves and rebated window shutters (some no longer functioning or partly replaced). There are also C19 plaster cornices to some rooms and areas.

The vestibule from Brunswick Road has a tiled floor and moulded console brackets forming an arch to the entrance hall. To the left are late C20 stairs to all floors. Most of the ground floor is a canteen with some early C19 decorative features and fittings such as shutters, ceiling cornices and a rose. The vestibule from Spa Road has a decorative plaster cornice and a depressed panelled arch to the entrance hall which has an early C19 stair with a wreathed handrail and stick balusters. The first floor has a wrought iron decorative floreated balustrade. The first floor retains some C19 joinery and plaster cornices. The doors across the building are mostly late C20 fire doors.

History

The Gloucester Spa, Hotel and Tavern was established in Lower Westgate Street, Gloucester by 1790 for the medicinal taking of waters and continued to operate into the C19. However, in 1814 another mineral spring was discovered on open pasture to the south west of the City known as Rignor Stile grounds. Wells were sunk and “suitable accommodation provided for all classes of invalids” with the hope that a dedicated spa would help elevate the standing of the City and promote it as a health resort. Gloucester Spa Company (and others) bought and developed land in the area from 1817, including The Spa buildings, Beaufort Buildings, Judges’ Lodgings designed by Sir Robert Smirke for John Philpotts (Grade II*) and many others, all on or around Spa Road.

The Spa is shown on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1830, fed by the ‘Sud Brook’, and with curved roads or paths around the pump room and bath house buildings. One path extended north and forms the drive to the Gloucester Spa Company’s Beaufort Buildings. The corner plot for Beaufort House appears to have been vacant at this time, but the current building was in place by the time of Causton’s Map of 1843. A Health Board map of 1852 shows the houses in more detail: Beaufort House with formal gardens to its rear plot and incorporating the most westerly of the earlier terraced houses, which provided principal entrance to the dwelling. Spa Road is shown as Great Norfolk Street.

Seemingly affluent and fashionable as a developing spa resort in the mid-C19, the City of Gloucester became increasingly industrialised in the later C19 as it developed as a port. Presumably as a result of the reduction in air quality and genteel surroundings, Gloucester’s fortunes as a health resort waned. By the time of the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1884 Beaufort House and 1 Beaufort Buildings are shown as separate dwellings and a portico is shown on the Brunswick Road front, by then adopted as the principal entrance. No alteration is known to have taken place to the buildings in the first half of the C20.

In 1960 the Pump Room was demolished and by the 1970 OS Map Beaufort House is marked as 59 Brunswick Road. In 1973-1974 a large office extension was built to the rear of Beaufort House along Brunswick Road and in 1989-1990 the buildings were remodelled and refurbished. 1 Beaufort Buildings was reintroduced to the building and incorporated as offices. In 2020 the building remains in business use.

Reasons for Listing

Beaufort House, Brunswick Road, Gloucester, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an assured Classical design as part of an early-C19 terraced row built for the Gloucester Spa Company;
* the building has surviving early C19 interior fittings and fixtures, most notably a principal stair.

Historic interest:

* for the association with the Gloucester Spa Company as an early C19 commercial venture in an emerging suburban development to the south of the City.

Group value:

* with other C19 buildings that were constructed close to the spa, including Judges’ Lodgings (Grade II*), and forming an historic group of note.

External Links

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