Description

WELLS

ST5445 MARKET PLACE
662-1/7/150 (North side)
13/09/72 No.11
Conservative Club
(Formerly Listed as:
MARKET PLACE
(North side)
Nos.3-25 (Odd))

GV II*

Includes: No.4 CATHEDRAL GREEN.
House with shop, now club. c1453, built as part of the "New
Works" by Bishop Bekynton, modified in C19 and early C20.
Rendered with false ashlar lining, and colourwashed, Welsh
slate roof behind parapet, with coped gable to west and
continuation to east, brick chimney stack.
PLAN: the property continues through as No.4 Cathedral Green
at its N end; the original front range, with through passage
to the right, has a single large room on each of the upper
floors, then the early stair, and a link by a passageway to
the later rear wing.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attic, single wide bay. Ground floor
extended in early C20 work using rusticated ashlar, with
plinth, pilasters and cornice below lead flat roof, single
window in plain opening with curved top corners having 3-pane
toplight, to right a 2-panel door under rectangular fanlight.
Upper floors have a wide canted bay window to full height of
parapet, incorporating sash windows in architraves with
18+30+18 panes to first floor and 12+20+12 panes to second
floor, with dentilled cornices over both windows and then
panels of diagonal boarding, the whole surmounted by a
flagpole, To left is a buttress with 2 offsets, the top
damaged, and adjacent is a lead rainwater stackhead and
downpipe, traces of cornice string behind rendering. Behind
parapet a small flat-roofed dormer on the right side.
The rear range, to Cathedral Green, is rendered and with slate
roof; remodelled mid C20, in 2 storeys, with 12-pane sashes
above a large 16-pane and a good 6-panel door with margin-pane
transom-light.
INTERIOR: the ground floor has been substantially modified,
with a C20 staircase to the first floor, where the principal
room has a 2-compartment ceiling with beams, moulded in the
front half only. In the rear wall is a stone corbel, and there
is a C17 6-panel door and 3-light casement with ovolo-mould
mullions and transom, the original ferramenta, but later
leading.
The upper stair is a wood spiral with turned newel, and the
upper level is entered through a chamfered stone 4-centred
arch. The E wall is in heavy timber-framing, and the 2-bay
roof has the original roof structure with 2 ranges of broad
chamfered wind-bracing. There is a small stone fireplace with
4-centred arch and ovolo plus cavetto moulding.
HISTORICAL NOTE: a photograph of 1910 in the building shows
that the main canted bays at that time had no glazing bars. At
that time this was the Constitutional Club. Part of an
outstanding late medieval planned urban group.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol:
London: 1958-: 328).

Listing NGR: ST5500945802

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17553065

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

• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)