The Pent House is a Grade II listed building in the Plymouth local planning authority area, England. First listed on 23 April 1952. A C17 House.

The Pent House

WRENN ID
tired-pedestal-wren
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Plymouth
Constituency
South West Devon MP: Rebecca Smith (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
23 April 1952
Type
House
Address
The Pent House, 20, Fore Street, City of Plymouth
OS grid reference
SX 544 556
Coordinates
50.383, -4.0483
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Pent House is a pair of small merchants' houses or tenements, now functioning as a single house, likely dating from the 17th century. The building features rubble walls, except for the deep-projecting first floor, which is rendered and probably built on a timber frame. It has a dry slate roof and brick end stacks. Originally, the structure had a U-shaped plan with a near central through passage that provided access to a narrow courtyard between the deep rear wings.

The house is two storeys high and has a three-window range. The first floor has 20th-century leaded casements and is supported by a timber bressumer over a colonnade of five unevenly spaced square rubble columns or piers. The ground-floor front is set back from the pavement and has four window openings of varied sizes with 20th-century windows, along with a doorway to the left of centre featuring a 20th-century door.

The interior has not been inspected, but a former listing description notes a crude 17th-century fireplace on the first floor, which has chamfered jambs and corbels supporting a slate lintel.

Local climate

The Pent House receives an average of 940 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 72% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 89% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 10 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 91% of listed buildings. Of these, 4 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  6. Brick House Grade II 30 m
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  8. Chapel House Grade II 34 m
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