John Gwynn House

John Gwynn House, Worcester

A terrace of nine houses, now converted to flats and incorporating a shop, situated on Bridge Street in Worcester. The building probably dates from around 1780 and is possibly by John Gwynn of Shrewsbury, the architect responsible for the adjacent Worcester Bridge. The terrace has undergone later additions and alterations, including a mid-19th-century shop front and renovations dating from the 1980s.

The buildings are constructed of pinkish-red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone bands, cornices and sills. The terrace features stone doorcases and timber doorcases, with hipped slate roofs and tall brick party-wall stacks that have oversailing courses and pots. Cast-iron balconettes decorate the façade. The left-end house rises to four storeys with a basement at the rear, whilst the remaining buildings are three storeys with attics. The frontage comprises four windows on the first floor and twenty-five windows across the terrace, with a plinth running along the ground level.

The first-floor sill band is present on most of the terrace except for the two leftmost houses. Window treatments vary throughout. The majority of windows are 6/6 sashes in plain reveals with sills. The left house has four tall 6/9 sashes on the first floor and four 3/3 sashes on the third floor. Flat arches of red gauged brick appear above the three leftmost dwellings, whilst the remaining windows have flat stuccoed arches. The attic dormers contain 3/3 and 3/6 sashes alongside casement windows, all under flat roofs.

The balconettes are notable features. Those on the four first-floor windows at the left are segmental in section with embellished rods decorated with stars on the upper and lower friezes. The third house from the left features three first-floor balconettes with scroll motifs, and the first-floor balconette on the right return also displays a scrolled design.

The principal entrance to the left house comprises a flight of six steps leading to a recessed six-panel door with flush-beaded lower panels. The fanlight above displays decorative radial glazing bars. The door is flanked by panelled reveals and surrounded by a stone doorcase featuring three-quarter engaged Doric columns. A frieze with triglyphs and metopes sits above, with a cornice displaying guttae.

The remaining six entrances feature renewed six-panel doors and fanlights in Doric surrounds with open pediments. The two rightmost dwellings incorporate a shop front at ground level, featuring a six-panel door (with raised and fielded upper panels and flush lower panels) in a pilastered surround with frieze and cornice. The glazed shop front has turned mullions and panelled aprons, with a part-glazed entrance and overlight.

The right return continues the shop front at ground floor level. Above this, the first floor has a 6/6 sash window and a blind opening, both in plain reveals with flat stuccoed arches. A balconette with scrolled motif sits at first-floor level to the left. Further windows to each floor appear on the canted return to Newport Street, all 6/6 sashes.

The left return, facing the River Severn, is arranged in three stepped ranges. The leftmost range contains four tripartite windows (one to each floor and one to the basement) with 6/6 sashes between 2/2 sashes. Those serving the second and third floors have flat arches of gauged brick; the basement window has a cambered arch. The third floor features a Diocletian window with 3/3 sashes between two-lights shaped sashes beneath an arch. Adjacent to this is a rounded stair turret with a 6/6 sash at ground floor and two 6/6 sashes with radial glazing bars to the heads on the first and second floors. The third floor of the turret contains a lunette with radial glazing bars under a round arch of gauged brick. The remaining sections of this return have three 6/6 sashes and two inserted sashes to the basement. The rear elevation retains many 6/6 sashes with cambered arches.

The parapet treatment varies: the two leftmost and the rightmost house have low coped parapets, whilst the remaining buildings are crowned with a frieze and cornice.

The interiors retain original joinery and plasterwork but have not been fully inspected.

John Gwynn House forms an important visual group with the almost identical terrace of numbers 1-13 (consecutive) on Bridge Street opposite. Together, they create a unified architectural approach to the listed buildings in Broad Street to the north and group cohesively with Worcester Bridge.