Boston Defined Area Survey; 3, 5, 7 and 9 Spain Lane, Boston, Lincolnshire

Summary

An early-C18 terrace of four houses with some C20 alterations to the interior.

Description

MATERIALS: Red brick laid in Flemish bond, with tumbled brick to the west gable. The roof is pantiled.

PLAN: The terrace is rectangular in plan.

EXTERIOR: The building is two storey with attic rooms and has a steeply pitched roof with three ridge stacks, one at either gable end and one centrally placed between nos 5 and 7. The north elevation, facing onto Spain Lane, has ten bays, the central four bays slightly advanced under an open pediment with a moulded fascia and modillion eaves cornice. This pedimented section has four, unhorned sash windows to ground and first floors and, within the pediment, a blocked round window with radiating tracery. To the first floor, flanking these four central windows, are three sash windows and in the roof above, two dormer windows with segmental, arched, lead roofs over six-paned sashes. To the ground floor the central section is flanked by pairs of doors with overlights, each door recessed within a panelled doorcase, beyond which, to east and west, are two unhorned sash windows. Both ground- and first-floor windows are under brick, segmental arches. The doors stand above a plinth, each door with three steps, each pair sharing a bottom step in common. A brick band divides the first and second floors.

In the south elevation, each house has a dormer window lighting the upper floor, one casement window and one tripartite casement to the first floor, and to the ground floor a door and casement window. There are additional and altered openings, for example one extra dormer between nos 7 and 9. All openings are under brick segmental arches.

INTERIOR: The four houses retain varying amounts of original detail. The most complete is no. 9, the furthest to the east, which also retains contemporary features in its polite front room. The fireplace surround with bracketed mantelpiece may be later, but this is flanked by arched niches with moulded pilasters above a shelf and cupboards. The walls are lined with fielded dado panelling and the main doors have six, fielded panels; there are also shutters to both ground and first floor front rooms. The back room, the kitchen, contains a tiled, C20 fireplace. A six-panelled door in the west wall opens onto an enclosed stair to the first floor, where the main front room to the north has a boarded fireplace; the surround plain with a moulded mantelpiece. It is flanked by cupboards with six-panelled doors. There is a similar arrangement in the equivalent room in No. 5, but here one of the cupboard doors has been removed. No. 5 also contains extensive joinery detail, including apparently recycled items, including a plain, four-panelled door laid on its side for use as part of a partition wall, and a panel with quatrefoil detail by the stairs. One of the main features in all houses is the built-in cupboards, some with six and others with four-panelled doors. The main attic rooms contain an arched niche, variously altered. No. 3 contains the least detail, but does retain dado panelling to the ground-floor front room, and many of its panelled doors. The roof has coupled common rafters with purlins clasped by collars.

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.

3-9 Spain Lane is an early-C18 terrace of four houses built within the southern boundary of the site of the Dominican Friary, founded after 1221. Immediately to the east is Blackfriars Arts Centre, listed at Grade II*, interpreted as being part of the south claustral range. The north wall of the C14 Guildhall, listed at Grade I, forms the south boundary of the terrace's gardens. The interiors of the four houses have been modernised to a greater or lesser extent in the C20, but no substantial changes have been made.

Reasons for Listing

* Architectural Interest: Its classical north elevation is elegant and impressive.
* Historical Interest: Its early date in the history of the English terrace reflects a period of rising prosperity in Boston. Sufficient internal detail survives to indicate both function and status.
* Intactness: Both its polite north façade and its more utilitarian south elevation remain largely intact, while plan form and historical detail survive throughout.
* Group value: It is a significant component of the historic town centre and has group value with the contemporary 24, 26 and 28 South Street, listed at Grade II, with Fydell House, listed at Grade I, as well as with the Guildhall, listed at Grade I, (which has internal refurbishment dating to the early C18) and the Blackfriars Arts Centre, part of Boston's Dominican Friary, listed at Grade II*.

External Links

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