Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 24/05/2018

SO8554NW
620-1/17/336

WORCESTER
HIGH STREET (East side)
No.31

Formerly listed as No.32, previously listed as HIGH STREET (East side) No.31, Gold Lion Public House)

22/05/54

GV
II
Former merchant's house, now shop. Late C14/early C15, internally remodelled probably in early C17 and extended to rear and refronted in early C19; restored late 1980s by FWB Charles.

Timber framed, with some replacement and renewal in 1988, with wattle and daub infill; stucco front and Flemish bond brick rear range; parapeted plain tile roof; brick stacks.

PLAN: C14/C15 house of three bays, at right angles to street, with two bay former open hall to rear of single bay block with former shop to ground floor and accommodation above; front originally gabled and jettied to first floor; any parts further to rear of
the surviving medieval house have disappeared, and by the late C18 had been replaced by a three storey range connected by a small hip-roofed block to the rear wall of the C15 range; early/mid C19 two storey range added further to rear.

EXTERIOR: Four storey and cellar. Two window front with 8/8-pane first and second floor and 4/4-pane third-floor sashes; fine late C18 shop front has three fluted Ionic columns to frieze with dentil cornice, C20 glazing bowed on right to entrance which has wrought-iron early C19 gate with initials GR; figure of Golden Lion above first floor, regilded c1990. The late C18 rear range has segmental brick arches over sashes including two original 6/6-pane sashes and modillion eaves. Segmental header arches to openings in smaller C19 rear range.

INTERIOR: Two bay hall with large-panel timber framing, much of it coated with orange ochre; arch-braced tie beams to end trusses, clasped purlins and pointed-arched windbraces to each bay, the main central queen-post distinguished by roll and quarter round moulding to soffit of tie beam and jowled arch braces, with quarter round only to arch bracing; some original common rafters, pegged at apex; four-light diamond-mullioned windows reconstructed 1988 to each side wall, flanking central wall posts; the first-floor was inserted probably in early C17, with mortices for soffit tenons with diminished haunches to inserted beam; the upper part of the rear wall has a right-hand rebate for a C15 doorway which clearly led into a rear chamber block (demolished by C18); rebated door surround leads from upper part of hall to first floor of front bay/ chamber block. The front bay has morticing etc indicating position of rear partition to shop, with assembly for jetty to front; joists to first-floor ceiling raised in C18, exposing mortices in bridging beam, the fluted pilasters with rosette blocks which flank front windows being of late C18 date; the front block was raised and roof realigned parallel to street, possibly in the C18 using late C16/C17 trusses, with trenching for purlins, which have been retained in the outer walls.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Documentary evidence shows that an influential Worcester man John Walsgrove (alias Flytt or Fleet) owned this house from around 1550; it was inherited by his son and grandson. It became and remained a public house from the mid-sixteenth century until the 1980s. (Hughes P: The Golden Lion: Report for
Public Inquiry: 1988-).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26669318

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

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)