70 74 76, HIGH STREET

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE HIGH STREET 829-1/9/120 (North side) 14/03/74 Nos.70, 74 AND 76

GV II

Cornmarket with meeting and reading rooms, now commercial premises. Built 1827 by public subscription. Yellow brick stucco dressings. Hipped low pitched Welsh slated roof above wide eaves cornice. Italianate style. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. First floor band, with 7 south facing and 2 east facing tall sash windows with glazing bars in reveals under stucco faced lintels with moulded cornices. Slightly recessed single window wing on left. Rear elevation facing West Street has 6 first floor blank recesses beneath segmental arches on first floor, and 6 arcaded arches on ground floor. Ground floor arcaded, having 7 arches in archivolts with imposts and keyblocks, originally open, with C19 and C20 glazed infill. On left modern plate glass display window in moulded surround, possibly late C19. Plaque on east records `Town Hall', but this identified the reading room, and the building never fulfilled a municipal role. The ground floor arcades were first enclosed in the 1840s when the building became a shop, and the arcades on the east front were removed for insertion of a shopfront. The building was extensively refurbished in 1984-5. Prominent site, with east facade a focal point in views westward along High Street. (Edwards E and Perman D: Ware's Past In Pictures: Ware: 1991-: 11, 93, 95, 141; Heath C: The Book of Ware. A Portrait of the Town: Chesham: 1977-: 61; Perman D: Ware UD. List of buildings of special arch or historic interest: 1993-: 47; Ware 25" to 1 Mile. Surveyed by the Ordnance Survey Department: 1851-).

Listing NGR: TL3578314328