Description

WELLS

ST5445 CHAMBERLAIN STREET
662-1/7/67 (North side)
12/11/53 No.36
Melbourne House

GV II

Detached house set back from road, converted as offices, 1993.
Later C18. Doulting stone ashlar, the side portions rendered,
Welsh slate roof between coped gables, rendered chimney
stacks.
PLAN: compact square main range is symmetrical with square
entrance hall with offset staircase flanked by single rooms
and 2 large rooms to rear; each side has a slightly set-back
wing, to the left a one storey conservatory with lean-to roof,
and to the right a larger block with hipped roof to parapet,
and with secondary staircase.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 5 bays. Sash windows of 12 panes in plain
openings with quintuple keystone heads. Entrance in bay 3,
with 6-panelled door without fanlight framed in stone surround
leaving attached Doric columns, full entablature with metopes
and pediment. The left wing has one sash with keystones, and
the right wing is plain on this front. Moulded cornice,
blocking and parapet to main range, with gable stacks. The
rear has 2 large Palladian windows at each floor, and the
service wing has 15 and 10-pane sashes, and a large doorway in
stone architrave with pediment.
INTERIOR: undergoing modification at the time of inspection
has unusually high ceilings. The square entrance hall has a
fine dog-leg stair to the right, running to a half-landing at
the front of the building-the landing carried on slender
fluted cast-iron columns, and having thin shaped stick
balusters to Doric newels, a mahogany handrail, and scrolled
ends to the treads. The lower floor has a modillion cornice, a
fire surround with egg-and-dart enrichment, a dado rail, and
panelled shutters.
The upper landing has a rosette and a moulded cornice. Doors
are panelled, with raised mouldings, and the thick walls have
panelled linings. The upper landing has an elliptical opening.
Rooms otherwise simply detailed. The service wing has a wide
dog-leg staircase with stick balusters.

Listing NGR: ST5470645835

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26662934

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

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)