2-4, St Mary's Street

2-4 St Mary's Street, Ely

This is a commercial and domestic building constructed in the 15th century. Around 1700 it was divided into two separate properties, and it received alterations in the 19th century along with shop fronts installed around 1900.

The building was originally timber-framed but was later encased in brickwork. Its steeply pitched roof is covered with plain tiles that were re-laid in the 20th century.

Layout

The building consists of a rectangular range facing St Mary's Street with a pair of ranges running back down the plot to the rear.

Street Frontage

The main façade facing St Mary's Street is two storeys high and built of painted brick. The wall of number 2 projects forward from its neighbour at the centre of the façade. At ground-floor level are two shop fronts dating from around 1900, with the doors placed centrally as a pair.

The shop front to number 4 comprises a large window with two fixed lights and small opening lights above, beneath a fascia board and moulded cornice. The door and window are framed with plain timber pilasters. The shop front to number 2 is wider and has a window of three fixed vertical lights beneath a fascia board and a simple timber canopy box. Unlike its neighbour, only the window is framed by plain pilasters.

At first-floor level the fenestration is late 20th century in date: three windows lighting number 2 and a single window for number 4. A gault-brick stack at the rear of number 2, dating from the mid-19th century, heats the rear range. At the rear, number 2 is lit at ground-floor level by a mid-19th-century six-over-six sash window.

Interior of Number 2

Access to the roof space of the front range is via a very small two-panel door dating from around 1700, with H-L hinges, from the upper-floor room of the three-storey rear range. The roof is a simple, undecorated 15th-century crown-post roof with down braces from crown posts to the ties. The majority of the rafters and several of the collars survive, one broken, and modern timberwork has been introduced to add support. The roof of the rear range is not visible, hidden by plasterwork and modern matchboard.

The ties of the front-range roof are visible at first-floor level. On the east side, the tie is arch-braced at the walls and a jowled post is apparent at the north end. A modern partition beneath the tie has created a small room at the east end. Studwork beneath the west-end tie forms a closed partition.

In the rear range, a dog-leg stair on the back of the front range leads down from the upper to the first floor. Underneath it, a plain plank door with butterfly hinges dating from around 1700 provides evidence for the date of the stairs. Also on the back of the front range is a winding stair which leads from first to ground-floor level. Behind the lower steps are three panels of moulded panelling dating from around 1700.

The ground floor, like the first, comprises a room in the front range and a room in the rear. The front room is used as a draper's shop. The pamment floor of the front room is divided into an area laid square at the entrance and the remainder laid on an angle. The area of square-laid pamments is contained by the west wall, which divides numbers 2 and 4, on one side and a substantial, broad-chamfered and stopped 15th-century bridging beam on the other. The stop respects the mid-point junction with axial beams, of which only the one on the west side survives. An 18th-century archway stands on the line of the main door and presumably once formed a way to the back range.

The floor of the back range at ground-floor level is brick, laid to an interleafed herringbone pattern. On the east side, a fireplace is blocked and panelled over. The rear door leads into a shower room and to the way out into a small rear yard.

Interior of Number 4

The remains of the continuation of the plain crown-post roof in number 2 can be seen in the roof of what is now number 4, in the form of a length of the collar purlin supported by a truss that forms part of a timber-framed partition dividing the two dwellings. A good number of original rafters survive but modern timbers have been introduced to offer extra support, as well as broad, pegged collars. The date of the collars is unclear as at least one is lap-jointed into modern timber. The roof of the rear range may be contemporary but is formed simply of coupled rafters, pegged at the apex, with what appear to be later collars added.

The arrangement of the upper floor seems to have been set out around 1700. The straight stair rises from the ground floor to a landing at the junction of the front and rear range. Above the stair a small section of wall post and a tie beam is visible. The landing has early-19th-century stick balusters and a slender, turned newel. Off the landing there are two rooms to the rear, a room over the front range and a small cupboard. Each has a two-panel door dating from around 1700 which was carried on H-L hinges, although the doors have now been turned and hung on later hinges. A corner fireplace in the room of the front range is open, whereas below, the corner fireplace is blocked and covered by a modern radiator.

At ground-floor level number 4 has been opened up so that there is no division between the front and immediate rear room. From here a door leads into the rear-most room, now the kitchen.

Historical Background

By the time of Bishop Fordham's survey of 1417, St Mary's Street (then High Row Street) had been established. Speed's Map of Ely of 1610 shows that by that time the north side of St Mary's Street had been built up, although the map is not detailed enough to highlight particular buildings. There was considerable development in Ely between 1610 and the middle of the 18th century when the number of buildings was estimated at 609 and brick was the established building material, as opposed to a mixture of materials earlier, including timber-framing.

2-4 St Mary's Street is likely to have been one of the buildings depicted on Speed's map as there is evidence internally of fabric dating to the 15th century. At the time of the publication of Speed's map, St Mary's Street was named 'High Row Street', which implies a location on a market place, and it may be that the building was then used as commercial premises. Surviving bridging beams and the roof structure would seem to indicate that the building was probably erected as a single property but around 1700 it was divided into two dwellings and the rear range of number 2 was either reformed into three storeys or added, its stairs serving both ranges. Numbers 2 and 4 were refaced in brick at different times in the 18th or 19th century.

Deeds, which probably relate to number 2 St Mary's Street only and are in the possession of the owners, provide evidence that the property was occupied by Paul Gotobed in 1786, a staymaker, and afterwards his daughter Mary. Mary Gotobed died in 1825 and the property was bequeathed to Mary Ind who subsequently sold it to Marshall Fisher, Yeoman, in 1838. In 1899 the Fisher family sold the property to Hannah Legge, the wife of a bootmaker.

The present shop fronts were installed around 1900. A photograph of around 1900, hanging in number 2, shows that the roof of number 4 was re-covered around that time and the roof of number 2 has been re-covered more recently. Both campaigns of work probably involved some repair to the roof structure.

The building contains a significant proportion of fabric dating to the 15th century, notably the majority of a crown-post roof. Fixtures and fittings dating from around 1700, notably several doors, illustrate how the building was used at that time. The building has strong group value with listed buildings in the vicinity, notably the adjoining number 6 St Mary's Street and the cathedral church.