Gatehouse and perimeter wall to former HMP Shrewsbury

Gatehouse and perimeter wall to former HMP Shrewsbury, built between 1788 and 1793. The architect was John Hiram Haycock, with Jonathan Scoltock as builder and Thomas Telford as surveyor. The structure has undergone late 19th-century, 20th-century and early 21st-century alterations and additions.

The gatehouse is constructed of brick with a vermiculated and rusticated ashlar principal elevation and ashlar plinth. Its roof, concealed behind a parapet on the entrance front, is of Welsh slate with brick stacks. The perimeter wall is of Flemish bond red brick with vermiculated stone piers, half-round stone coping and stone offset bands. The late 19th or early 20th-century heightening of the wall comprises five courses of English bond brick.

GATEHOUSE

The gatehouse stands at the centre of the south-west side of the perimeter wall, aligned north-west to south-east. It is of two storeys in three bays, with its principal elevation of ashlar facing south-west. The elevation comprises a central entrance bay with flanking drum towers. The centre bay contains a large round-headed vehicular entrance with wooden doors set beneath a cast-iron lintel. Above the doors is a cast-iron latticed window in the tympanum, resembling a portcullis. Rising from a deep plain parapet set over a heavy roll-moulded cornice is a shaped gable with a broken segmental pediment, supported by two wide panelled pilasters. At the centre, within a round-headed niche, is a marble bust of the prison reformer John Howard by John Bacon RA. A rectangular recessed panel below the niche is inscribed 'HOWARD'.

To the ground floor of the drum towers are horned sashes set within former pedestrian doorways, over which are flat hoods carried on curved brackets. On the first floor are circular cast-iron latticed windows with stone surrounds featuring corduroy work rustication.

Attached to the right-hand return is a late 20th-century reception block, which itself replaced a late 19th-century addition. The right- and left-hand returns are of red brick, with the cornice and parapet continuing to the tops of the walls. Each first floor has three horned sashes with stone cills, probably inserted in the late 19th century.

The rear of the gatehouse is of Flemish bond brick with a central coped gable, now partly concealed by an early 20th-century extension to the vehicular entrance. To the left-hand side is a pedestrian entrance and to the right an inserted late 19th-century window opening. To the interior of the vehicular entrance, the late 18th-century section contains two bays of brick with jack arches and cast-iron beams, probably inserted when the prison was rebuilt in the 1880s. The north-west wall contains two door openings with segmental arches and chamfered jambs, whilst the south-east wall has two later door openings with concrete lintels. A number of infilled openings exist in both walls.

Adjoining the north-west end of the gatehouse is a single-storey addition added in the 1880s and further extended towards the prison yard in the late 20th century. Built against the perimeter wall, it is of English bond red brick with two segmental-headed windows. All windows, except those of the first floor, have metal security bars.

The interior has been remodelled from its late 18th-century form and comprises a mix of late 19th and 20th-century alteration and adaptation. Surviving historic fixtures and fittings are mainly of late 19th-century date and include a closed-string staircase in the south-east tower along with moulded door and window architraves to the first-floor rooms.

PERIMETER WALL

The perimeter wall encloses an area which is roughly rectangular on plan, aligned north-east to south-west, with canted corners at the north-west and south-east sides.

The section of wall to Howard Street, facing south-west, is interrupted by the gatehouse. North-west of the gatehouse, the wall stands to its original height with two capped vermiculated piers. It now contains three late 19th-century windows with stone cills, inserted when the gatehouse was extended. South-east of the gatehouse, the original late 18th-century perimeter wall was demolished in the 1970s. The present wall here is set back from the original boundary line and is of English bond brick with a stone coping. It is possibly the wall of a late 19th-century building that was attached to the gatehouse but has now been demolished.

The canted section to The Dana, facing south, was truncated from three to two-and-a-half bays when the adjoining section in Howard Street was demolished. It is, along with the following eleven bays of the long twelve-bay flanking wall, of late 18th-century construction with a late 19th or early 20th-century heightening of approximately 0.5 metres. The twelfth bay at the north-east end is a 1970s extension. Between the centre and the right-hand end of the wall, one bay is surmounted by a raised semi-circular section with stone coping. Its exact function is unknown.

To Beacall's Lane, both the three-bay canted section and eleven of the twelve bays of the long flanking section are of late 18th-century construction with a late 19th or early 20th-century heightening as before. The final bay is a 1970s addition. Four bays at the centre have been raised in height, probably in the late 20th or early 21st century.

The wall at the rear of the site, which fronts a footpath behind Albert Street, is largely of 1970s date. At the centre is a single bay of the original late 18th-century wall, flanked by vermiculated piers. It has also been raised in height.

The following elements are not of special architectural or historic interest: the L-shaped single-storey addition adjoining the south-east flank of the gatehouse, together with that portion of the perimeter walling facing south-west onto Howard Street which lies between the gatehouse and the corner with The Dana; the portion of walling which forms the twelfth bay along the flank with The Dana at the north-east corner, and the walling which extends from the north-east corner of the site along the lane behind Albert Street to the vermiculated stone pier at the south-eastern side of the central bay; and the portion of walling which forms the twelfth bay along the flank with Beacall's Lane at the north-west corner, and the walling which extends from the north-west corner of the site along the lane behind Albert Street to the vermiculated stone pier at the north-western side of the central bay.