54, St Edward Street

LEEK

SJ9856SW ST EDWARD STREET 611-1/6/114 (West side) 13/04/51 No.54

GV II

House. Now in use as offices. Mid C18, with some late C19 additions, probably by Larner Sugden, to the rear. Brick with plain-tiled roof. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 5-window range with central entrance hall. Rear wing forms link to parallel rear range possibly contemporary with, or slightly later than, the frontage block. Doorcase with pediment carried on scrolled console brackets. 12-pane sash windows with heavy astragals; no glazing bars in lower panes of ground-floor windows. Painted stone cills and flat-arched gauged brick heads. Leaded rainwater goods with feather-like leadwork to rainwater head and fleur-de-lys motifs on mounting straps. Painted moulded stone eaves cornice. Coped gables; end wall stacks. To the rear, the roof slopes down over full-height outshut apparently a separate phase of building but housing the staircase (which itself appears to be mid-C18), with bulls-eye window on upper floor. Later C19 additions and alterations to rear: 2 full-height bay windows added to S side of rear wing; one canted with Ipswich windows with leaded upper lights on first and second storeys; one squared and timber-framed with brick infill. 12-pane sash windows in sides and tripartite sash windows to front on each floor. Narrower upper stage probably a later addition. Other late C19 additions in the courtyard formed in the angle of the 2 parallel ranges and the rear wing, comprising billiard room and service accommodation: former billiard room has mono-pitched roof with leaded glazing in round-arched arcaded windows facing N. Half-timbered storeyed wing against frontage range probably built to house bathrooms etc: leaded lights to projecting 3-light mullioned windows on each floor. Similarly styled wing against rear range. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORICAL NOTE: the house was lived in for a time by Joshua Wardle, and it seems likely that the various additions were made to the house during his occupancy. Joshua's son, Thomas Wardle was visited on many occasions by William Morris. Stylistic evidence suggests that they were the work of William Larner Sugden.

Listing NGR: SJ9832056419