43-49, ST JOHNS

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 20/10/2016

SO8454SW 620-1/19/580

WORCESTER ST JOHN'S (South East side) Nos.43 to 49 (Odd)

(Formerly listed as Nos. 43 to 49 (Odd), ST JOHN'S)

05/04/71

GV II House(s), now shop. c1475-1525 with later additions and alterations. Major repairs and reinstatement by owners 1977-87 based on F.W.B Charles survey of c1973. Timber frame with rendered infill. Plain clay tile roof. Rectangular plan of 3 bays. Principal axis parallel to street. Part 2 storey. Central full-height window; 2 ground-floor windows. Framing to left is 2-panels high, close-studding with large square panels above; that to right is 4-panels high in small square panels. Renewed windows have mullions of diamond cross-section with fixed glazing. Wide planked doors with cambered heads, one to left, one to extreme right.

INTERIOR: Wall painting thought to be C16 on upper floor; shows a bird (identified as a crane) with foliage and fruit; in black, red, and yellow.

HISTORICAL NOTE: This building was identified in the 1954 list as 'probably C17...stucco.' Consent for demolition was granted in 1973 but overturned on appeal following discovery of true nature of the building. It was decided as impracticable to repair and reinstate the cross wing. The following is part of an open letter from F.W.B. Charles dated Dec 1974:- "These three little properties were originally one building of c1500. It consisted of a 2-bay hall, open from ground-floor to roof, and a solar cross-wing of 2 storeys, jettied and gabled over the pavement.The cross-wing, at the right-hand end, as one faces the building, is now more complete at the back than it is at the front. The original roof of its front bay has been replaced by one lying in the same line as the hall roof, and the jetty has gone. The hall is much more complete. Its original entrance is still marked by a door at the extreme left-hand end. This was originally the entrance to the so-called screens passage. At about 1600 a floor and enclosed fireplace were inserted making the hall into a two-storey structure with rather low headroom. This typical alteration of the seventeenth century...gives...the impression of a cottage built for small people?......Possibly there was also a service cross-wing on the other side of the passage corresponding to the solar. But this and many other features of the original building are so far unexplored. The building must obviously be preserved since, excluding the Commandery which is of altogether different social and architectural standing, there is probably no other surviving medieval hall in Worcester."