42, Foregate Street

This is a mid-18th century house, now used as offices, situated on Foregate Street in Worcester. The building is constructed of stucco and pinkish-red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with an ashlar cornice and copings, and a plain tile roof. A brick end stack is topped with a pot.

The house is four storeys high, featuring five windows on the first floor. The ground and first floors are stuccoed, with detailing including horizontal rustication on the ground floor and tooled architraves to the windows. A moulded plinth is present. The off-centre left entrance has a six-panel door within panelled reveals, accompanied by a frieze and fanlight with decorative petal glazing bars. The doorcase is distinguished by three-quarter engaged Doric columns and an open pediment displaying an Apollo mask and sunburst motif. A plate glass window with margin lights sits to the left, while an inserted wide window is positioned to the right, both set within tooled architraves. A band separates the ground and first floors. The first floor boasts six-pane, horned sash windows in plain reveals, each topped with a tooled keystone. The second floor features similar sash windows, some horned, with sills and flat arches of gauged brick. The third floor has smaller, three-pane, horned sash windows with sills and flat arches. A frieze, cornice, and blocking course run along the top of the building, topped by coped eaves.

The interior retains original joinery and plasterwork, alongside tooled architraves to the doors. An open-well staircase, located behind the room on the right, has a wreathed handrail and turned balusters.

Historically, Foregate Street was known as 'the mall' in the 18th century, and a local guide noted its popularity as a fashionable promenade due to its paved width and good air circulation.

The building forms a notable group with the Shire Hall, the Statue of Queen Victoria, the City Museum and Library, and several other properties along Foregate Street.