Lombard House

ST JAMES'S PARADE 656-1/41/1542 (North East side) No.30 Lombard House

(Formerly Listed as: ST JAMES'S PARADE No.30) 05/08/75

GV II

Office building, formerly houses. c1770 (but see below). MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar and rubble, concrete tile roof. PLAN: Lozenge-shaped block, mansard roof, with principal frontage to Parade, but at each end minor street entering at acute angle. EXTERIOR: Three storeys and attic; principal frontage in two facets. All windows, sashed, contain plate glass. To left, a broad single bay with small dormer above paired windows on each floor, display window with fascia on brackets, and six-panel door with transom light to left. Returned end to left rendered, the adjoining property having been demolished. To right, at obtuse angle to first bay, the main three bay frontage with two dormers above three evenly spaced sash windows per floor. Ground floor with shop front. Central C20 door, replacement panelled door and transom light far right, and small display window far left, replacing former door. On front fascia runs full width over display windows, on three pairs of brackets. Far left, and at each end of long front are deep ashlar stacks, with skirt and cornice mould with blockings, that to right on series of steps. At far right end very narrow splay return, then back of property, in rubble with dressings, with one offset, and without openings. At far end return with plain sash to two faces, into small courtyard. INTERIOR: Not inspected. HISTORY: St James's Parade, originally Thomas Street, was the centrepiece of a development from 1765 onwards by Richard Jones, Thomas Jelly and Henry Fisher who were granted liberty in September 1765 to 'pull down the Boro' walls next to the Ambry gardens in order to build new houses there'. The street was closed off with bollards at each end, and the houses fronted a broad paved walk in place of the road. The elevations, attributed to Thomas Jelly and John Palmer, show the influence of John Wood the Younger's work elsewhere, as in Rivers Street. The houses were mainly built in c1768. Following bomb damage in the area, extensive clearance and redevelopment has taken place. St James's Parade, after an uncertain period, was reprieved No.30 is more simply detailed than other houses in the street, and the smaller window openings possibly suggest a slightly earlier date. The former list referred to a slate roof and glazing-bar sashes as having been formerly in situ.

Listing NGR: ST7502264495