1 And 1A, Foregate Street

SO8455SE 620-1/12/239

WORCESTER FOREGATE STREET (East side) Nos.1 AND 1A

(Formerly listed under FRIAR STREET)

19/08/99

GV II Shop with offices over. c1880s with later alterations including c1980s ground-floor shop front. Reddish-brown brick in Flemish bond and header bond to angle with stone dressings and concealed roof; left end brick stack. Curved on plan to right angle. Aesthetic Movement detailing.

Four storeys, one first-floor window, with two first-floor windows to right return. First and second floors have 1/1 sashes, third floor has 2/2 sashes; those to first-floor are round-headed, otherwise with cambered heads; all in plain reveals with roll moulding. First-floor windows have moulded sills on feet; second- and third-floor moulded bands break forward to form sills under windows with feet. First-floor windows have brick and stone arches and roll-moulded hood on carved imposts and with shaped keystones with foliate decoration; second and third floors similar, keystones to second-floor have sunflowers, those to third-floor are plain. Console brackets, frieze and cornice with coped parapet. To angle a clock at first-floor and barometer at second-floor, both in circular brick surrounds.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

HISTORICAL NOTE: during the C18 Foregate Street was known as 'the mall' and Tymbs' Worcester Guide of 1802 notes, 'the Foregate Street itself, by being well paved and sufficiently broad to admit a full circulation of air seems to be generally resorted to as a fashionable promenade.' Nos 1-6 (consecutive), Nos 57-66 (consecutive) Foregate Street, Berkeley's Hospital, Hop Market and Nos 14, 15 and 19 The Foregate, and Nos 3, 5 and 7 Sansome Street (qqv) form a good group.

A good example of a late C19 commercial building, which occupies a visually significant corner site. No.1 occupies an important corner site contributing to the visual framework to one of the major entrances to Worcester city centre via The Foregate and The Cross.

(Worcestershire Historical Society Occasional: Papers: Whitehead D: Urban Renewal and Suburban Growth: The Shaping of Georgian Worcester: 1989: 12; Tymbs: Worcester Guide: Worcester: 1802: 60).