52 & 53 Cumbergate, formerly Miss Pears' Almshouses

52 & 53 Cumbergate, formerly Miss Pears' Almshouses

Former almshouses built in 1835 with additions of 1903 designed by James G Stallebrass, converted as part of a shopping centre in the 1980s.

The almshouses occupy a corner plot between Cumbergate and Exchange Street. The building has an L-shaped plan consisting of a long narrow east range of 1835, set back from the street, and a projecting south block of 1903. Two early 21st-century single-storey glazed additions projecting from the west side of the east range are excluded from the listing.

Materials vary by section. The long eastern range is of Gault brick with stone dressings, while the south block is of Ketton stone laid to courses with Stamford stone dressings. The roof is covered in Welsh slate.

The almshouses are designed in the Tudor style. The long eastern range of 1835, set back from Cumbergate, has two storeys under a pitched roof with two tall, wide chimney stacks spanning the ridge, each with four chimney pots. The ground floor features two double-leaf Tudor arch doors within moulded stone surrounds, replacing earlier apertures. The remainder of the ground-floor elevation is obscured by flat-roof glazed extensions. The first floor is lit by a series of one- or two-light mullion windows with leaded lights in metal frames, set in stone surrounds with Tudor hoodmoulds. Two double-height gabled bays under hipped roofs were added in 1903.

At the northern end, a two-storey stone block under a pitched roof has a more decorative four-bay frontage facing south onto Exchange Street. The two bays on the right-hand side belong to the 1835 phase and are of roughly dressed stone laid to narrow courses with a plinth and quoins. Pairs of octagonal, diagonally-set chimney stacks with decorative mouldings sit on stone bases at either end of the roof. The central, slightly recessed entrance features a shallow pointed arch door with six vertical, chamfered panels, the upper three replaced with opaque glazing. The door is set within a moulded stone surround under a Tudor hoodmould raised to frame a stone tablet carved with crossed keys. Two-light oriel windows with cavetto-moulded mullions and stone roofs are supported by modillions on either side of the entrance. The two-light mullion windows on the first floor are under kneelered gables flush with the wall and surmounted by stone finials. The two bays to the left-hand side belong to the 1903 phase and are very similar except that the windows are three-light mullions and there is no door.

The west gable end of this block has a door in the same style as that of the 1835 phase on the left, and to the right a recessed single-light leaded window in a stone surround with a stone panel beneath lighting the hall. Above the door are two similar windows lighting the landing. Two-light mullion windows occupy each floor on the right. An elaborate stone plaque with scrolled sides bearing the date 1903, the name of the benefactor Miss Frances Pears, and the crossed key motif occupies the centre of the gable end. The left return is lit by irregularly placed single-light leaded windows and a cross window at first-floor level.

The interior has been substantially altered. Only the southern half of the building was available for inspection. The ground floor has been opened up and the first floor partitioned into many smaller rooms, with very little of the original floor plan, historic joinery and fixtures retained. The only surviving historic features are the window ironmongery and, in the 1903 part of the south block, the stone stair with plain iron balusters, one per tread.