8, 8A And 10, High Street

This group comprises a former public house now divided into two dwellings (8 and 8a), and a house with a former ground-floor shop (10). Together they form a complex of interlinked structures dating from the late 16th or early 17th century to the early 20th century.

Historical Development

The core of the complex is a late 16th to early 17th-century range running parallel to but set back from the road, which now forms 8a and the rear of 10. Number 8 is probably 17th or early 18th century and was linked to 8a by a later 19th-century rear bay. The front range parallel to the street (10) is at least mid-18th century, possibly 17th century, but was refronted in the mid to later 19th century. Number 10 has an additional late 19th-century northern bay and single-storey, probably 19th-century, rear ranges.

The building occupied by 8 and 8a operated as a public house until the mid-1950s, when it became a ships' chandlers' business and family home. Numbers 8 and 8a were formed when the building was divided and refurbished in the 1980s to create two separate two-storey houses. Number 10 functioned as a pharmacy until the mid-1980s and is now solely residential.

Materials and Construction

The rear range (8a and rear of 10) is timber-framed, rendered, and in part lined as ashlar, with plain tile roofs. Number 8 is brick, possibly replacing a timber frame, rendered and lined as ashlar at the front, also with a plain tile roof. The street elevation and returns of 10 are refronted in stock brick with red brick dressings, the ground floor painted or rendered, under concrete tile roofs. The late 19th-century bay to 10 is stock brick under a hipped slate roof. Rear ranges are painted or rendered brick with red pantile and concrete pantile roofs.

Plan

Number 10 comprises two-storey parallel ranges with a ground-floor shop in the front range and a later 19th-century added northern bay. At right angles at the rear, running along the boundary of the plot, are single-storey kitchens and workshops under two roof levels.

Number 8a occupies the southern bays of the late 16th to early 17th-century timber-framed building, including the stack. Replaced stairs rise next to the stack but outside the original building. The rear bay under a catslide roof is a later 19th-century addition and formerly connected with the remainder of the pub. Blocked doorways on both floors are visible. Beyond these are later 20th-century additions of no special interest.

Number 8 is roughly square on plan, originally butting onto the north-south range. It has a particularly tall hipped roof. During the later 20th century the rear wall was rebuilt and the house extended under a flat roof. The internal plan does not survive.

Exterior

Number 10

The two-storey street elevation has a symmetrical ground-floor shop front to the left with large three-over-three pane windows canted to frame a part-glazed door set back under a plain overlight. To the right is a four-panel door under a plain overlight, and at the far right a single horned sash. All are set under a continuous dentil cornice over a plain fascia, beneath which the brickwork is painted or rendered. The upper floor has a tripartite window over the shop and a single horned sash over the ground-floor window. A flush red brick band and enriched stock brick cornice beneath a tall plain parapet extend to the south elevation, where the brick frontage wraps round the building.

The remainder of the south elevation is painted brick and has a blind first-floor window. The north elevation is stock brick with an exposed stack suggesting the adjoining structure has been demolished. The stack is reduced in height. The roof has concrete tiles and a red tile ridge.

Number 8a

The gabled two-and-a-half-storey south-facing elevation has a renewed recessed entrance and replaced flush two-leaf timber casements, most of six lights, in previous openings: one on the ground floor and attic, two to the first floor. A T-plan ridge stack is of red-brown brick.

Number 8

The two-bay, two-storey west-facing elevation has been re-rendered and lined as ashlar, with replaced eight-over-eight pane sashes and a replaced panelled door, also in previous openings. The roof is steeply pitched with a slight splay. Stacks have been removed.

Rear Elevations

Number 8 has a flat-roofed extension of no special interest. Number 8a has a late 19th-century extension under a catslide roof with a single first-floor sash window. Later additions attached to it at ground floor and to the north of it are not of special interest. The late 19th-century two-storey bay attached to 10 is not of special architectural interest in its own right. The single-storey rear ranges to 10 have in part replaced roofs and altered openings. Although their architectural interest is diminished, they are of historic interest for their association with the attached buildings and incorporate part of the red-brown brick boundary wall.

Interior

Number 10

The ground-floor shop is fitted as a pharmacy. The walls are lined in timber panelling with etched glass panels set into the pilasters, and have bookshelves above stacks of deep labelled drawers on the rear wall.

The right-hand ground-floor room has a small plain angle fireplace with a mid-19th-century cast-iron grate. There is a plain, probably 18th-century, fireplace with an ornate mid-19th-century grate in the room above.

The first-floor front range has a two-bay chamber with a deep 18th-century enriched modillion cornice, and a chimneypiece with an eared architrave, which is possibly not original, and a mid-19th-century round-headed cast-iron grate. The door is of six panels and has been moved from its original doorframe to create a lobby. Roof purlins and spine beam of the rear range are visible. Cupboards have probably renewed butterfly hinges. At roof level there is a flying freehold between 8a and 10.

The ground floor of the rear range has added late 19th-century fittings. The later 19th-century sitting room in the added bay is complete with its fireplace, panelled window linings, and mouldings which are typical but not remarkable for the period.

Number 8a

The frame is exposed on both floors. Much of the ground-floor frame is removed, although a chamfered spine beam with nearly lamb's tongue stops is in situ. On the first floor a robust jowelled post and mortices for braces to the truss and gable wall are evident. The ground-floor brick fireplace is rebuilt using the chamfered bressumer. A smaller brick fireplace on the first floor is more intact. The side purlin roof remains, with additional strengthening. The later rear bay has blocked entrances formerly linking it to 8.

Number 8

The building has been reordered internally. The former ground-floor pub room has a deep moulded cornice. The partition wall with the hall reuses mouldings taken from the outer wall when the stairs were inserted. The roof survives with added strengthening.

Setting

The buildings lie between the High Street and the parish church, close to the River Thames. They are part of a strong group of buildings which define the historic core of Hampton. The rich 18th-century interior of number 10 reflects the prominent position of the house and wealth of the area in the 18th century.