Description

BRENTWOOD

TQ5993 HIGH STREET
723-1/12/78 (North side)
21/10/58 White Hart Inn
(Formerly Listed as:
HIGH STREET
(North side)
White Hart Hotel Inn)

II*

Public house. Late C15, early C20. Timber-framing and brick,
slate roof. Front block to street with 2 long ranges at rear,
each side of courtyard, reached by carriageway from street.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys. S front elevation, C20 brick facade in
Georgian style colour washed on ground floor. 10 bays, 2
moulded stone cornices and parapet with moulded string course
between ground and first floors. Ground floor, E-W, 2 sash
windows with horns, doorway with stucco pilasters with cyma
moulded capitals and sunken panels, plain frieze rises above
string course, plain fanlight and double doors with upper
glazing with glazing bars, each door, 2x3 panes, lower fielded
panel, 2 plain sash windows with horns. Carriageway with
4-centred arch, timber arch inset, restored but head original
with roll, hollow, return, hollow moulding, also further inner
arch partly restored with hollow chamfer moulding. Folding,
glazed shop-front doors, 4 folds, one fixed, each with 2 paned
fanlight, glazing bars, 2x4 panes and lower fielded panel.
First and second floors, uninterrupted 10 window range, all
windows horned sashes with glazing bars, 3x4 panes. W
elevation concealed. E elevation has irregular fenestration of
C20 windows. Courtyard, range to W has a 2-storeyed, jettied
gallery c1500 with 20 first-floor 4-centred arched openings -
now either blocked or with sash windows. From S, first 8 are
of one build with sunk spandrels, to N separate framing of 12
similar openings except that spandrels are plain. Galleried
range penetrates through C20 N range of court (in imitation of
gallery style) as old jettied framing is exposed on N exterior
elevation. Neither the N or E courtyard ranges are of special
interest, being entirely C19 or C20 builds and are therefore
not included in this listing. W gallery range has peg-tiled
roof, lower to N end and stack towards S end of centre,
weatherboarding over lower part of gallery openings down to
jetty, ground floor rendered and colourwashed with jetty
brackets exposed, central section has C20 lean-to pentice on
simple timber posts. S-N, ground floor, all C20 features.
Under carriageway, double doors each door glazed, 3x3 panes,
one lower fielded panel. 3 sash windows, 4x4 panes, under
pentice - 2 doors with upper glazing, 3x3 panes and between
them a sash window 4x4 panes, 3 casement windows with glazing
bars, two 4x4 and one 2x4 panes, also stair porch with fully
glazed door and fixed window 4x4 panes, herring-bone brick
work below. Beyond pentice, canted bay window on brackets,
2x4, 5x4, 2x4 panes, door glazed, 3x3 panes, lower fielded
panel, window, 6x4 panes, plain door with fan-light. N
exterior elevation, jettied gallery range to W, added range to
E over courtyard entrance, all rendered and colourwashed with
flat C20 tiles, weatherboarding over entrance, first floor, 4
sash windows and one casement window all with glazing bars and
all 4x4 panes. C20 ground floor addition at E end with gabled
roof.
INTERIOR: the W galleried range first floor has the very
complete remains of the gallery and the inner timber-framing
of the original rooms with their moulded doors and windows.
Earlier section, to S, has two 2-bayed rooms each with a
central open plain crown-post truss, with 2-way bracing. S
room of 2 equal bays has 2 doorways, one at each end and a
central mullioned window. Second room similar but bays unequal
and one door only. Stack now through larger, N end bay and
absence of door or window in that bay suggests a fire hood
probably there originally. Additional build to N - evidence of
2 rooms remains. Gallery frames progressively disturbed to N
end but framing or part framing of doorways remain comprising
a room with a door at each end and a further room with a
single door, the arrangement apparently copying the older pair
of rooms. Roof structures not visible as now ceiled in. Date
of second phase is close to the first but work is slightly
less elegant. Ground floor wall framing is now considerably
covered but framing above reflected in bay divisions below in
arrangement of open and partitioned trusses - open trusses had
arched braces with linking fillets on binding joists. Common
joists heavy, centre tenoned. Mouldings in the gallery range
interior and exterior principally of hollow chamfers. Junction
of gallery range and street block has ground floor doorway to
front principal room. Doorway has a 4-centred arched head with
sunk spandrels, traces of red colouring remain. Survey of the
room by Essex County Council Planning Dept. during
refurbishment has revealed original studding with traces of
wall painting, comprising blue colouring, a bold trefoil
design and stencilled arabesques. A demonstration studded
panel is now exposed above the door, the rest now covered up.
Although timber-framing evident in street block it is now too
covered and cut away to interpret. Red brick walled cellar
below E side of carriageway has English bond and wall
battered. Comparison of the W galleried range with other inn
galleries in England show it to be apparently the most
complete and the most elegantly constructed of those that
survive. Drawings of the gallery dated 1891 held by Essex
Record Office show the courtyard essentially of the same form
as today with a block, now replaced, bridging the N
carriageway. 6 rear gallery openings remained completely open.
(Central and SW Essex : Monument 2: 36; The Buildings of
England: Pevsner N: Essex: 1965-: 102).

Listing NGR: TQ5933493750

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17545003

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings