Portland House

BARNSTAPLE

SS5633 BEAR STREET 684-1/3/15 (North side) 31/08/88 No.29 Portland House

GV II

House and shop. Early C19 with shop front dated 1891. Rendered, solid walls, probably of brick, except for shop front which is of limestone ashlar. House has asbestos-slated roofs with red ridge-tiles; shop has flat roof. No chimneys. 1 room wide, 2 rooms deep with gallery and back block at rear. Entrance passage on right hand side of ground storey, leading to staircase at rear. The shop stands on the original front garden. The gallery and back block are shown on Wood's map of 1843. House 2-storeyed with garret in front block; shop single-storeyed. House has 2-window range. Round-arched doorway to right of ground storey; 6-panelled door, the 2 lowest panels flush. Windows have 6-paned sashes. Gable-wall to right, facing Gaydon Street, has 2 blind windows in each storey; 6-paned sash window in garret. To right of gable wall is a tall, rendered courtyard wall, ramped up at each end. At left end is a doorway with pointed arch; door with 6 flush panels and lion-head knocker. 10-paned shop window at right hand end. Rear wall of front block has round-arched stair window to left; 6-paned sashes with radial glazing bars in head of upper sash. 2nd-storey window to right has 6-paned sashes. Gallery has no windows in upper storey. Side wall of back block has 6-paned sash window to left of upper storey; narrow, small-paned window, probably lighting a staircase, in centre. C20 wood casement window to right. Fine shop front has range of 4 tall, trefoil-headed windows under canted hoodmoulds. Between window-heads, 3 trefoil panels containing shields, the centre shield carved with date 1891. Return front to Gaydon Street has window with pointed arch to left and round-arched doorway to right, both with hoodmoulds; double doors with panel below and glazed, trefoil-headed panel above. Corner rounded, being carved with sunflower and inscribed scrolls. Crenellated parapet round both fronts with carved inscription: W YOUINGS AND SONS. MARBLE AND STONE MASONS. Beneath the main range of windows is carved: EST. 1857. INTERIOR: partly inspected. Entrance passage with moulded cornice; panelled, round-headed archway opening into stair compartment. Wooden open-well stair with balustrade of thin, square-section balusters, voluted at the foot. Ground-floor front room has white marble chimneypiece with incised decoration and date 1886; there are reported to be 2 similar chimneypieces in the house, all carved by Mr Youings. HISTORICAL NOTE: the Youings family, who still run the firm, have been in business on this site since the 1870s. Their work has always included architectural as well as monumental masonry. (Photograph of house before erection of shop front; John Wood's map of Barnstaple: 1843-; Barnstaple Castle records; Plans Committee Minute Book, 2.5.1891).

Listing NGR: SS5615933337