Number 5 Kingsbury, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Summary

A shop premises at ground floor level with accommodation above which now serves as storage and office space. Late-C18 or early-C19 with a later-C19 shop front.

Description

A shop premises at ground floor level with accommodation above which now serves as storage and office space. Late-C18 or early-C19 with a later-C19 shop front.

MATERIALS & PLAN: Plate glass shop windows with brick piers to either side and wood and metal mullions. First floor walling is of painted brick with sash windows at first floor level. Plain tiled roof covering with flat-roofed dormers. Two storeys with attic and basement.

EXTERIOR: Number 5 has a ground-floor shop front with a central doorway and lobby at either side of which are large plate-glass shop windows. The risers are plain and the deep fascia connects with the first-floor canted bay window. The first floor has colour-washed brickwork and a stepped brick cornice at eaves level. The canted bay window is placed to left of centre and has horned sashes and may originally have been an oriel like the one on Number 3 to its right, but it is now joined to the shop fascia below. The flat-roofed oriel above has a sash widow and its flanks are clad with lead.

INTERIOR: the basement, which is now approached through a trap door at ground floor level, has two rooms and a passage to the eastern side with brick steps leading up to former ground-floor passageway. The ground floor has been opened out and the upper floors are supported by columns, with an enclosed staircase in the north-eastern corner. Ceiling beams are encased and some ceilings are C20 and suspended. Original flooring has been overlayed or replaced. The first-floor oriel window overlooking the street has a moulded surround and boarded sides. One first-floor ceiling retains its cornice. A framed wall in the attic has a blocked doorway and original plaster. The roof has two ranks of purlins which appear to include re-used timbers.

History

Number 5 Kingsbury is one of a row of C18 or early-C19 properties with shop fronts at ground floor level along the eastern side of Kingsbury, in the centre of Aylesbury. The triangular space of Kingsbury is located to the north-west of the Market Square. The name Kingsbury derives from the King's fortified manor which occupied a sizable area of land to the north-west of the present day square and included the area now occupied by Ripon Street and Granville Street. Documentary evidence dating from the C14 suggests that Kingsbury was an open area which was reduced and enclosed by encroachment development. The buildings on the eastern side of the square, between Kingsbury and Buckingham Street, and including number 5, are an example of encroachment dating back to at least the C16. Their location makes it possible that there was always an element of retail use associated with the buildings.

Photographs dating from the early 1920s show that number 5 then had a shop front with canvas awning. The ground floor of number 5 is currently (December 2020) a hairdresser's with storage and offices above.

Reasons for Listing

Number 5 Kingsbury, Aylesbury is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* As a late-C18 or early-C19 shop premises with accommodation above, supplemented by a later-C19 shop front and lobby, which retains a good degree of its original fabric.

Historic interest:
* It represents the gradual development of the medieval market place at the heart of Aylesbury to include later, permanent shop premises in the C18 and C19 and the subsequent transformation of an earlier shop by the introduction of a plate glass shop front.

Group value:
* The building stands near to the centre of Aylesbury on a part of the former medieval marketplace and is surrounded by several listed buildings, including Lloyds Bank, 1 Market Square; number 3, Kingsbury; Hobgoblin, 14 Kingsbury; The Rockwood Public House; 40 Kingsbury and 44 Kingsbury (all Grade II).

External Links

Historic England Listing

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