Description

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE WEST STREET
829-1/9/183 (North side)
08/05/50 No.8
Rankin House

II

House, subsequently `Town Hall', now offices. Early C18,
altered early C19. Brick, stucco faced, Welsh slated roof
behind parapet, with C20 box casement dormer, red brick
chimneystacks.
EXTERIOR: front elevation altered early C19, plinth, plat band
at first floor level, cornice, 5 first floor sash windows with
exposed boxes in shallow reveals, and small panes. Ground
floor with 4 long sash windows in shallow reveals with exposed
boxes, and small paned glazing. Central porch, 4 steps up from
ground level, with Greek Ionic columns, Tuscan Doric responds,
and entablature with fascia, frieze, cornice and blocking
course. 4 fielded panelled door with rectangular fanlight, and
pointed, arched glazing bars, in reveal below porch. Plain
rear elevation, 3 storeys, stuccoed with plat bands at first
and second floor levels, 5 flush set sash windows with glazing
bars first and second floors, altered ground floor with linked
mullion and transom casements, and central half-glazed door.
INTERIOR: double-pile plan comprises 4 rooms around a narrow
hall which traverses the house. Early C18 newel staircase with
square newels with recessed panels with bolection moulding,
moulded caps with cyma reversa, and sweeping moulded
handrails. Column on vase balusters, and heavy moulded close
string. Dado with moulded cap, and raised fielded panels with
bold cornices, pilaster with honeysuckle caps, and heavily
moulded fruit and flowers over arched niche in ground floor
left hand front roofs. The entrance hall has bands of
vitruvian scroll moulding, and arches supported on moulded
consoles. The building functioned as a privately run `Town
Hall' from 1867, administered by a syndicate of local
businessmen, and a meeting room was built behind it,
demolished in the 1950s.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N (rev. Cherry B):
Hertfordshire: Harmondsworth: 1977-: 379; Smith JT:
Hertfordshire Houses. Selective Inventory: London: 1993-:
199; Ware 25" to 1 Mile. Surveyed by the Ordnance Survey
Department: 1851-; Moodey GE: East Hertfordshire
Archaeological Society Newsletter: Hertford: 1953-).

Listing NGR: TL3576614354

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26563868

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

• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper