1, 2 And 3, Mealcheapen Street

Three houses, now shops, on the south side of Mealcheapen Street in Worcester. The building has origins dating to around 1610, with substantial rebuilding carried out around 1688-99 for Anne Beddoes. The properties are numbered one to three from right to left.

The facades have been much altered and added to over time. A mid-18th-century facade was followed by later additions and alterations including stuccoing to the right section; an early 19th-century shop front to the left; a shop front to the right dating from around 1836-99; and a shop front to the centre added around the 1970s. The left section is constructed of pinkish-red brick, the centre of painted brick, and the right of stucco over brick, with a plain tile roof throughout. The building rises three storeys with a continuous coped parapet.

The fenestration varies across the frontage. The first floor has five 6-over-9 flush sash windows with sills and flat arches of rubbed brick on the left and centre, and an 8-over-8 flush sash with sill to the right. The left and centre sections have a 3-course band at second-floor level. The second floor contains five 6-over-6 flush sashes with renewed lintels and sills, and an 8-over-8 flush sash with sill. A 2-course band runs above the second floor on the left and centre sections.

The ground floor contains three distinct shop fronts reflecting different periods. The left shop front retains two original multi-pane bow windows with some original panes of glass, a central entrance, and double part-glazed doors with lower flush-beaded panels and an overlight. A plank door serves the right section of this frontage. The central shop front has plate-glass windows and doors. The right shop front features end and off-centre right pilasters with corbel brackets, a continuous frieze and cornice, and plate-glass windows on panelled aprons with glazed doors; a similar renewed shop front appears on the right return.

The right return elevation has tripartite windows on both the first and second floors, each composed of a 6-over-6 window flanked by 2-over-2 flush sashes, all with sills, and is crowned by a low coped parapet.

Internally, No. 3 retains a closed-tread dogleg staircase with rod-on-vase balusters running through the first and second floors. Nos 2 and 3 are said to retain 17th-century wainscot doors with butterfly hinges. The ground floor to the right shows no evidence of original plan, plasterwork, or joinery. The remainder of the interior was not inspected.

Historically, the building incorporates material from an earlier structure. In 1610, Nos 2 and 3 were described as "the new welling house of Mr Richard Gough (alderman)". The building was divided into two dwellings around 1688-99 by Anne Beddoes, with two gabled rear wings added; timbers and fittings were re-used from the earlier house. No internal evidence of No. 1 remains. No. 3 is said to have previously housed a saddlery and before that a boot shop. Until the late 19th century, No. 1 formed part of The Shambles.

Mealcheapen Street flourished particularly in the 16th and early 17th centuries as a predominantly retail outlet. Its prosperity owed much to its proximity to the Cornmarket, which led to the establishment of a number of large inns. The three listed buildings occupy a prominent corner site at the intersection of Mealcheapen Street, Trinity Street, The Shambles, Church Street, and St Swithin's Street, forming a good group with other listed buildings in Mealcheapen Street and Cornmarket, and having significant group value with the Church of St Swithun on Church Street.