23, Mealcheapen Street

WORCESTER

SO8554NW MEALCHEAPEN STREET 620-1/17/442 (South side) 05/04/71 No.23

GV II

Shop and house. Early C19 probably with earlier origins and later additions and alterations including c1970/80s ground-floor shop front. For William Thompson, grocer. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 2 first-floor windows. Reddish-brown brick in Flemish bond with rubbed red brick flat arches; hipped plain tile roof, partly-rebuilt tall right side stack with oversailing course; cast-iron balconettes and timber cornice. First floor has plate-glass windows. Second floor has 3/6 flush sashes and balconettes with 2 levels of rails. All windows have flat arches of gauged brick; renewed first-floor sills. Crowning modillion cornice. Ground floor has plate-glass shop front which extends across No.22 (not included). INTERIOR: ground floor retains no evidence of original plan form. Lowered ceiling obscures evidence of any original plasterwork. Hughes notes that this retains the upper part of a Regency staircase. HISTORICAL NOTE: Mealcheapen Street flourished particularly in the C16 and early C17, predominantly as a retail outlet; Hughes: 'it was the proximity to the Cornmarket that gave the street much of its prosperity and led to the establishment of a number of large inns.' All the listed buildings in Mealcheapen Street form a group with the listed buildings in Cornmarket and with Church of St Swithun, Church Street (qqv). (Hughes P: Buildings and the Building Trade in Worcester 1540-1650: PhD thesis: 1990-: 199-200, 226).