Mason Croft And Attached Gate And Walls

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

SP1954NE CHURCH STREET 604-1/9/53 (West side) 25/10/51 Mason Croft and attached gate and walls (Formerly Listed as: CHURCH STREET Mason's Croft (premises occupied by The British Council)) (Formerly Listed as: CHURCH STREET Gate piers to Mason's Croft)

GV II

Town house, now used by University of Birmingham, with gate and walls. c1724, extended to left 1725; 1870s wing to left end built for Trinity College (qv) converted to music room c1905. For Nathaniel Mason, lawyer. Brick with ashlar dressings; hipped renewed tile roof with brick rear stacks. Double-depth plan. Georgian style. 2 storeys with attic; symmetrical 7-window range with 2-window addition to left; single-storey, 3-window range to left has gabled cross wing. Brick plinth and platt band over ground floor; rusticated ashlar quoins; top modillioned wood cornice. Entrance has eared architrave with key, pulvinated frieze and cornice, heavy pegged frame to stained glass overlight and battened door. Windows have rubbed brick flat arches over 12-pane sashes and 3 hipped dormers with 2-light small-paned casements. Addition to left has 2 brick platt bands and top stone-coped brick cornice; c1900 hipped bay window with 4-light transomed window with leaded glazing; end stack. Music room has entrance with canopy to left of 2 cross-casement windows, and hipped bay windows with 1:5:1-light transomed casement with 3-light casement to window above; return truncated lateral stacks. Stone-coped brick walls flank gate with 1740s ashlar Tuscan piers with cornices and ball finials, plank gate. Returns have dormers. Rear has gabled wing with platt bands and tall C20 wing with c1900 conservatory to right; right end has later additions; entrance has doorcase with reeded pilasters and cast-iron trellis porch, 6-flush-panel door; rainwater heads dated TM/ 1735 and TM/ 1745. INTERIOR: room to left end has c1900 furnishings: panelling with tapering pilasters and cornice, elliptical arches to window and inglenook fireplace with side window and small bay,cupboard over pointed arch with copper hood, room to right end has Jacobean style fireplace; open-well staircase has closed string, twisted-on-vase balusters, square newels with pendants and ramped handrail. 1st floor room to left has fielded-panelled dado, C19 fireplace with later copper hood and ?de Morgan tiles; other rooms have chamfered beams and C19 fireplaces, and 2-panel and 8-panel doors; attic with C17 door. Music room has curved principals to collar-truss roof, large segmental-headed fireplace with cartouche with initials: MC, BV, and flowers; coronae; wainscotting to older rear room. HISTORICAL NOTE: the home of Marie Corelli, novelist and pioneer conservationist, from 1901 until her death in 1924. Gate piers to Mason's Croft listed 9.2.72. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: London: 1966-: 419; Bearman R: Stratford-upon-Avon: A History of its Streets and Buildings: Nelson: 1988-: 26-7).

Listing NGR: SP1995154628