11, Union Road

CREDITON

SS826000 UNION ROAD 672-1/5/165 (North side) 11/10/72 No.11

GV II*

House, the ground floor now used as 2 shops. Circa 1730. Painted Flemish bond brick; tarred slate roof; rear lateral stacks with brick shafts. Plan: single-depth main block, 3 rooms wide, with stairs behind central hall.Later C18 or early C19 rear right lean-to provides an extra room first floor rear right, now used as a kitchen. Exterior: 2 storeys. 3-bay front, originally symmetrical. Timber doorcase with fluted Doric pilasters, these may pre-date the flat porch canopy on moulded brackets which sit awkwardly on the capitals. Original 6-panel door, the upper panels fielded with a pretty bead-moulded fanlight with decorated spoke glazing bars. Ground floor window right is an early C19 16-pane sash, lower sash replaced with plate glass. Late C19 timber shop front to left with panelled pilasters with shaped gabled brackets and a moulded cornice; recessed central half-glazed door with flush lower panels and a glazed overlight; plate glass shop windows to left and right. 3 first floor original C18 double-hung boxed sashes with thick glazing bars, some original glass and individual opening panes; centre window 12-pane, outer windows 16-pane. Interior: Very complete. The hall has plain panelling with original skirting, panelled doors and a timber moulded cornice. Dining room also panelled with panelled shutters. The parlour (now a barber's shop) is particularly fine; fully panelled with fielded and moulded panels. The panelling is now painted but the present owner stated that it is oak and was exposed when she purchased the house in the 1930s. The original timber chimney-piece (mantel-piece added later) is flanked by fluted Doric pilasters with an entablature and triglyph frieze with guttae and a delicate dentil frieze below the cornice. This is so similar to a chimney-piece in Pownes House (No 72, High Street(q.v.)) as to suggest the same designer. Fine original stair rises to a half landing and extends to the attic: open string, turned balusters, square newel posts, engaged balustrade against the wall and a flat-topped moulded handrail. The first floor rooms are plainer; small closet to centre has been enlarged. Second floor room left has a C19 white marble chimney-piece. Basement kitchen and cellar said to be very unaltered. Roof: Pegged A-frames with lapped collars. One of the purlins has been cut through at the rear to accommodate an attic window. This fine early C18 town house is an unusual survival in Crediton and probably pre-dates the fire of 1743. In spite of the commercial use of the ground floor, the plan and most of the fittings are intact.

Listing NGR: SS8334600269