178-180, Main Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland

Description

622/0/10073 MAIN STREET
08-DEC-09 Spittal
178-180

II
Pair of semi-detached houses, 1880s, built by William Wilson, local architect, builder and funerary sculptor.

MATERIALS: Pink/grey local sandstone, roughly shaped and coursed to the rear and left return, coursed to front and right return with ashlar and 'fish-scale' rustication. Roofs are grey slate.

PLAN: The pair are mirror images, with three storeys plus semi-basement. Each has an enclosed front porch, hall and staircase with front and back reception room, and both have a single storey extension across the rear.

EXTERIOR: The main elevation has four 2-over-4 vertical sash windows set evenly across the first floor with ashlar dressings and each with a different carved head in the centre of the lintel. A central single storey enclosed porch has doors facing to the sides and is approached up a curved flight of stone steps. The entrances are round-arched with a prominent keystone, and have panelled half glazed doors with a semi-circular overlight. Facing front are two round arched windows set in plain engaged columns with Ionic capitals. At each corner and in the centre are similar columns rising from the ground to the roof and supporting an entablature with a frieze of deeply carved swags, dentils and cornice. Above each column is a free-standing bust, a central one of Alexander the Great, flanked by heads purportedly of Robert Burns and Walter Scott. A ground floor window to each side is a two-light 2-over-4 sash with a segmental arch top, set in narrow pilasters with console brackets supporting a narrow projecting cornice. A string course at first floor level is dentilled, while that at second floor is plain. The four second floor windows are lucarnes with semi-circular heads; their architraves are carved and scrolled. At each of the four corners of the hipped roof is a free-standing carved eagle. All of the stonework save the quoins, window dressings and the second floor is heavily incised with a fish-scale patterning. Basement windows with plain stone surrounds are visible to the side of the front steps, and continue to each side.

The right return has the same string courses and stonework patterning as the front. Four ground floor and four first floor windows are similar to the first floor front windows, each with an individually carved head on the lintel. The second floor windows are also similar to the front second floor windows, and are positioned to either side of two large ashlar chimney stacks with dentilled cornices. The left return is plainer, with the same number of windows on each floor but only the second floor windows having carved and scrolled architraves, the rest with plain dressings. The stonework is roughly coursed and shaped, as is that to the rear. The ground floor to the rear is occupied across the width of the building by two similar extensions, both with hipped slate roofs and rendered and glazed walls. The original back wall has four 2-over-4 sash windows at different heights and two smaller windows at second floor level. Both houses have a single roof light at the rear.

INTERIOR: The left hand of the pair (No. 180) has an original front door opening into the porch which has deep decorative coving of alternating lion heads and consoles. A round-headed archway leads to the hall which has similar coving and a door to the left to the main reception room. At the far end is another archway beyond which is the curving dog-leg staircase which has decorative cast iron balusters and a wooden handrail. The corridor continues to the left of the stair, leading to the rear reception room and stairs down to the basement. These have plain stick balusters. The front room has window shutters, original skirting boards, timber fireplace surround and elaborate plasterwork ceiling rose and cornicing with an individual floral frieze above a modified egg-and-dart. The rear reception room is plainer but retains cornices, skirtings and shutters. A former window to the rear has been altered to form a doorway to the C21 rear extension which has an open roof structure and roof lights as well as windows to the rear and a side door to the exterior. The basement is subdivided into several rooms, each having windows opening to exterior light wells. There are three first floor bedrooms, two of which have highly decorative cornicing and an elaborate ceiling rose. The stairs to the second floor have plainer cast iron balusters. The three second floor bedrooms are partly in the roof and have arched and angled openings to the windows.

The right hand of the pair (No. 178) is a mirror image of the left, but has fewer original doors, shutters or skirtings. Original fireplaces do not survive and there is some alteration to the layout of the first floor. In the front porch is a circular plasterwork plaque, said to be a copy of a continental original, showing a female figure with a cherub at her back, in classical style.

HISTORY: The pair was built in the 1880s by William Wilson, a local architect, builder and funerary sculptor. He is said to have built No. 178 for himself and to have sold No. 180 to fund it, though this is also said of the Wilson Terrace further down Main Street, built in 1878. The houses have undergone some internal losses, and outbuildings to the rear of No. 178 (storerooms and privies) have been demolished, but with the exception of a single story extension to the rear of each, they remain largely unaltered.

SETTING: The pair faces Main Street on ground that rises quite rapidly to the rear. The former outbuildings at No 178 have gone and a garage built that extends to the rear side of the house.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
Nos. 178 and 180 Main Street, Spittal are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* They are highly individual examples of Victorian eclecticism
* They display high levels of craftsmanship and individual design
* The exterior decoration and embellishment is extremely accomplished and showcases the skills of the individual builder who was also a sculptor
* Despite some losses, the interiors also contain very good quality and individually executed decorative details, including plasterwork and cast iron work
* They are directly comparable to other examples of the work of William Wilson that are also listed.

Reasons for Listing

Nos. 178 and 180 Main Street, Spittal are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* They are highly individual examples of Victorian eclecticism.
* They display high levels of craftsmanship and individual design.
* The exterior decoration and embellishment is extremely accomplished and showcases the skills of the individual builder who was also a sculptor.
* Despite some losses, the interiors also contain very good quality and individually executed decorative details, including plasterwork and cast iron work.
* They are directly comparable to other examples of the work of William Wilson that are also listed.

External Links

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.