Description

BIDEFORD

SS4526 MARKET PLACE 842-1/6/165 Market House 06/04/89

GV II

Market house. 1883-4. By J Chudley of Newton Abbot. Roughly-coursed stone rubble with dressings of red and cream brick, red terracotta and limestone. Slate roofs. Plan: front range in east side with main entrance flanked by shops; the fish market and corn exchange seem to have been at either end originally. Behind and parallel to this runs a long corridor, open at each end, lined on both sides with small shops formerly used by butchers (two firms remain). Behind this again is the pannier market, described in 1889 as occupying '10,500 superficial feet'. 1 storey; shops at the front with a low upper floor. East front is of dressed stone rubble, divided into 9 bays by cream-brick pilasters striped with red brick; below the capitals are red-terracotta panels moulded with flowers. Pilasters support segmental red-brick arches, moulded on the underside and with scroll-keystones of limestone; middle arch, which forms the main entrance, is taller and round, finished above eaves-level with a stone gable having a terracotta finial. The edges of the gable and the corbel-tables under the eaves are of cream brick. Main entrance has patterned iron gates; fanlight with 3 upright glazing-bars. Shops (1 on each of the 4 bays flanking the entrance) have a display window on the side farthest from the entrance, canted on the near side towards the recessed shop-entrance. Display windows have angle-shafts with moulded caps and bases; double-doors with solid flush panels below, and round-headed glazed panels above, surmounted by tall 2-paned fanlights. Upper floors have fully-glazed display windows, each with 3 upright glazing-bars. The 4 outer bays contain windows with segmental red-brick arches matching those over the bays themselves. Each window has 4 lights with wooden mullions and transoms. Beneath the 2 right-hand windows and the second window from the left are a doorway and 2 shop windows; the former, half-glazed, occupies the second bay from the right and is probably original, but the latter are probably later insertions (that to left is late C20). In the gable over the main entrance is a weathered stone plaque with date and inscription. Side and rear elevations are plainer, though not without architectural character. Right-hand end of front range has a tall opening (now occupied by a shop front) with round red-brick arch, moulded on the underside and with plain keystone; above it a gable with cream-brick edges, the centre occupied by a round window with red-brick surround. Both ends of the butchery have similar arches, surmounted by plainer gables; patterned iron gates, 3-paned fanlight. Side-elevations have segmental-headed windows and doorways with red-brick arches, those on the Pannier Market linked at sill and springing-level by red-brick bands. Moulded red-brick eaves-cornice. Rear elevation is similar, but with 3 round-arched windows set in the ends of 3 gabled ranges: 2 tall gables with a shorter one in the centre. The middle window has original glazing-bars with moulded intersections. matching windows at the opposite end of the Pannier Market, just visible above the roof of the butchery. INTERIOR: the butchery origianlly had 12 shops on each side and most of these have survived intact; a larger shop at the north end of the west side is probably an amalgamation of 2 original shops. Each shop has either a 2-paned display window with a single upright glazing-bar or an opening closed by shutters; plank door to one side, the upper half opening separately from the lower. Above the whole shop an open grille with iron scrollwork. Cream-brick floor to passage between the shops. Above on each side a row of wood-framed trusses with upright glazing-bars and diagonal braces. Exposed roof-trusses with shaped braces to the tie-beams. Pannier Market has 5 roof-spans carried on hollow iron columns with moulded caps and bases, the second span from each end taller to allow for a range of windows on each side. Columns are moulded with the inscriptions TARDREW & SONS. IRONMONGERS & IRON FOUNDERS. BIDEFORD. 1883 and J.H. FOADEN. CONTRACTOR. ASHBURTON. The columns support wooden roof-trusses with raking struts from tie to principal; the 2 taller spans have arch-braces under the ties. Cream-brick floor. The market hall was built for Bideford Corporation at a cost of about »3000 and opened on 15 April 1884. (Kelly's Directories: Devonshire: 1889-: P.56).

Listing NGR: SS4525826482

External Links

• Wikidata Q26571834

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Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)