43-44 Market Place, Boston, Boston, Lincolnshire

Summary

Terraced house and commercial premises, substantially rebuilt in the early C19 with a rear, early-C18 wing.

Description

MATERIALS: Stucco and red brick with stucco dressings and quoins. Shallow pitched roof clad in Welsh slate with two Gault brick gable stacks.

PLAN: The building has an L-shaped plan with a rear wing extending the full length of the plot.

EXTERIOR: The building is part of a terrace of houses with shop fronts facing the Market Place which range in date from the C18 to C19. It has three storeys and a four-bay front with a moulded eaves cornice on paired brackets. The C20 shop front has a brick stallriser and a display window consisting of three large panes with transom lights and a glazed door on the right. It is flanked by fluted pilasters and has a plain fascia supported on brackets. The first floor has four two-over-two pane sash windows, and the second floor has a central, blank, shaped stucco panel, flanked by smaller two-over-two pane sashes. The openings have rusticated lintels with keystones. The early-C18 rear, red-brick wing has a tumbled gable and brick band, and dog-toothed eaves. There is a flat-headed dormer on the south side and three windows with gauged brick arches, the first is blocked and the other two contain two-over-two pane sashes.

INTERIOR: Internally the building is much altered and does not appear to retain any joinery or decorative elements from any earlier phase; although it is possible that some cornicing may survive behind the inserted ceilings. The plan form has been remodelled in the C20 to form a restaurant and kitchen on the ground floor, a shop and bar on the first floor, and domestic accommodation on the second floor.

History

Despite some fluctuation in its fortunes Boston remained a prosperous port and market town from the middle ages into the C19, its social, economic and political history reflected in its town plan and buildings. From the C12 to the C15 it was one of the busiest ports in England, its wealth based principally on the trade in wool, cloth and luxury goods. Boston's market was first recorded between 1125 and 1135, and the annual fair was one of the great trade fairs of Europe. The medieval town grew around streets on either side of the River Witham, now the High Street to the west and South Street to the east. The latter opens to a wide market place to the north, from which narrow medieval lanes travel east and north to Church Street, St Botolph's Church and Wormgate.

The medieval period is represented by fragments of the Dominican friary surviving as the Blackfriars Arts Centre (Grade II*) on Spain Lane, the only visible evidence of the four friaries established in the town in the C12 and C13. Evidence of the town's thriving C14 and C15 engagement in the North Sea wool trade survives in the Guildhall (Grade I) of the Guild of St Mary, one of several religious guilds in the town at this period. Following the incorporation of Boston as a borough in 1545 and the dissolution of the religious guilds two years later, the assets of the Guild of St Mary, including the Guildhall, were transferred to the Corporation. Later C18 fen drainage and the construction of the Grand Sluice realised the value of the Corporation's estate, the increase in income funding significant building projects in the town, including the Exchange Buildings of 1770-1772 (formerly the Corporation Buildings) to the west of the Market Place (Grade II*). This renewed prosperity continued into the first half of the C19, when agricultural enclosure generated new wealth from a now highly productive rural hinterland. The corporation invested in further public building, notably the Assembly Rooms, completed in 1822 (Grade II*) to the north of the Exchange Buildings. The Grade II listed buildings that form an irregular terrace, 42-50 Market Place, also date to the first half of the C19, as do eight Grade II listed warehouses. Between the mid-C18 and mid-C19 the town's suburbs grew to the north-west and east of the Market Place, with limited development to the west of the river.

Boston continued to thrive economically until the construction of the railway in 1848; this brought a station and growth to the west of the town, but withdrew outgoing goods from the port. A new dock constructed by the corporation to the south of the town in 1884 renewed seaborne trade and brought development to an area of previously agricultural land. By the late C19 the town had reached almost its present extent. Although there was new building within the town in the C20, notably the construction of the inner ring road, John Adams Way, much historic fabric has been retained; this is reflected in the comprehensive coverage of Boston in the National Heritage List for England.

The earliest part of 43-44 Market Place to survive is the rear brick wing which dates to the early C18. The rest of the building was either substantially altered and re-fronted or completely rebuilt in the early C19; and has been subject to further alterations in the C20. It is most likely that 43-44 Market Place was built (or rebuilt in the early C19) as a house with commercial premises, although the existing commercial frontage dates to the C20. The interior has been substantially remodelled and does not appear to retain any fixtures and fittings from any earlier phase. The ground floor has been used as a restaurant for at least thirty-five years, whilst the first floor has been converted into a bar and a shop, with domestic accommodation on the second floor. A photograph dated 1890 shows that it had two dormer windows which have since been removed.

Reasons for Listing

* Historical interest: it forms part of a significant late-C18 and early-C19 remodelling of Boston’s historic Market Place, and, together with other major developments such as the Assembly Rooms, mark a notable period in the town’s history when it sought to re-establish its commercial pre-eminence as both port and market centre.
* Architectural interest: it is part of an incremental development of town houses and shops on the western side of the Market Place which retains much of its external detail and continues to form part of the varied architectural frame to the Market Place and to the setting of St Botolph’s Church.

External Links

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