22, Friar Street

SO8554NW 620-1/17/287

WORCESTER FRIAR STREET (West side) No.22

22/05/54

GV II House, now shop. c1726, for Francis Walker with later additions and alterations including late C18/early C19 rear range and restorations and shop front c1980-90.

Pinkish-brown brick in Flemish bond with ashlar keystones and copings, plain tile roof. Double depth plan with rear ranges. Three storeys with attic, three first-floor windows. six/six flush frame sashes to first and second floors, the second-floor central window is blind, all with flat arches of gauged brick, keystones. Ground floor has part-glazed entrance at left and glazed shop front, all in Victorian style. Gabled attic roof dormer concealed behind low, coped parapet. Rear range has exposed timber framing to gable end.

INTERIOR: ground floor gutted, otherwise not inspected.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Francis Walker, one time Mayor of Worcester, built the house for his own occupation, on the site of an earlier dwelling.

Friar Street originated as a rear access lane for buildings in the High Street until the foundation of the Franciscan Friary in 1235. The first Friary buildings occupied the stretch between Nos 11-25. The south end of the street was developed first, with plots dating from the mid C14, plots at the north end date from the early C15. Many of the existing houses date from the Reformation, the Friary having been suppressed in 1539 and its property sold by the Crown to the Corporation of Worcester which demolished much for building materials. Building continued during the C17 whilst the C18 saw the replacement of several older buildings. The street was inhabited mainly by tradesmen: weavers, clothiers, brewers and innkeepers.

(Hughes P and Molyneux N: Friar Street: 1984: 31; NMR: Photograph).