6, Lower Borough Walls

This is a house and shop, built around 1800, with alterations from the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of limestone ashlar, now painted, with a Welsh slate roof. The building stands on a corner site, with a double-depth plan and two main facades. The west corner is splayed, creating an inset effect. The exterior features platbands and a sill band to the first floor, a moulded lintel cornice, and a parapet with a pediment facing the road. The upper floors have tripled windows, with the outer ones being false, and contain two-paned sash windows in plain reveals. The ground floor has a shallow segmental arched recess which likely originally accommodated a bowed shop window; it now contains an eight-paned sash window and a panelled door, which may be a replacement dating to around 1840. A single window and a six-panel door (with a slab hood supported on shaped brackets) are located on the splayed corner. The west front has two windows, one of which is blind, with a slightly recessed bay featuring a simpler cornice. There are three windows on the ground floor, the furthest containing a six-paned sash. A Mansard roof has been added, including an angled section to the corner. Flat-topped dormers with two-paned sashes are located on the road-facing front, with a single similar dormer on the other front. Chimneys have decorative pots. Internally, a Georgian staircase with Doric colonnettes and a fireplace were noted during an inspection in 1993. Maps and photographs suggest that the building was once part of a symmetrical terrace, linked to a surviving house at number 5. This house appears to be later in style than number 5, and resembles designs by John Palmer from shortly after 1800. Council minutes from 1765 record permission granted to demolish Borough Walls in order to build houses, and a later decision to widen Lower Borough Walls to improve access. From 1830 to 1840, it operated as the Crispin Tavern, subsequently renamed the Bell Inn in 1852. The Bell Inn’s license was revoked in 1883 following legal action by the vicar of St. James, alleging it was a house of ill repute. By 1890, it had become a Church Army Hostel, and by 1920, it was occupied by W.R. Bowden, a painter.