Description

GLOUCESTER

SO8318NW WESTGATE STREET
844-1/8/392 (South side)
12/03/73 No.33
(Formerly Listed as:
WESTGATE STREET
(South side)
Nos.31 AND 33)

GV II*

Merchant's house, now shop and former dwelling. Probably C15,
refronted in mid C18, minor C19 and C20 alterations. Timber
frame and brick above a stone and brick cellar. A narrow front
of one-bay masking the former gable-end of a right-angle plan
framed range four bays deep.
EXTERIOR: three storeys above cellar, formerly a medieval
undercroft. On the front a simple shop-front with recessed
glazed doorway on right and a fascia with a moulded frame
above; on each of the upper floors a central, horned sash,
with central glazing bar, in a flat-arched opening with a
slightly projecting and raised keystone, and a projecting
stone sill; the former crowning cornice has been removed. Rear
elevation has gable with hung slate cladding exposed above
adjoining property at rear.
INTERIOR: cellar, originally the undercroft of the medieval
house, with a separate entrance from Westgate Street, has
stone rubble side walls with evidence of stone springing for a
segmental barrel vault, mostly rebuilt in brick, but with some
portions removed later; the side walls bond with stone rubble
front wall with central opening now the access to pavement
light, but originally the doorway from street to undercroft;
on the west side of the opening a rebated jamb with outer
hollow roll moulding is bonded with inner wall face; detached
stones with the same moulding remain in cellar from the east
jamb, removed when service pipes inserted in C20; rear wall of
brick with C19 stove inset within segmental brick arched
recess.
On the ground floor behind the head of the shop-front is the
moulded bressumer which supported the former first- floor
jetty of the original timber-framed front, otherwise the
ground floor relined in C20; timber stairs to rear left.
On first and second floors projections in the wall faces
indicate the positions of the principal posts of the timber
frame of four bays divided by a central cross partition on
each floor. On the second floor indications of a substantial
curved brace in the second bay from the front in the west

wall, and on the east side of the rear wall.
The framing of the east wall removed when the adjoining
property, No.31 Westgate Street (qv), rebuilt in mid C18, but
to support the rafters the wall plate retained on timber knee
brackets inserted to each side of the chimney-stack projecting
from west wall of No.31 within the front bays of No.33, and on
iron straps within the rear bays; soffit of wall plate has
retained mortices for bracing to tie beams. The second floor
is open into the roof space to the presumed level of the
collar ties to the trusses. The exposed portion of the truss
between the two northern bays has a slightly cambered tie beam
with its original pegged knee brace on the east side indicated
by the mortice in the underside of the beam.
HISTORY: the building is a rare and substantially complete
example of a small, late medieval merchant's town house with
its undercroft.

Listing NGR: SO8307618626

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537735

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

• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)