16 and 17, Bear Street

A pair of early 19th-century houses, now used as shops, located on Bear Street, Barnstaple. The houses are built with rendered walls, likely originally brick, and feature slated roofs, with a hipped roof on the left-hand side. A red brick chimney is visible on the left-hand side wall. The buildings are three storeys high and have a four-window frontage. The ground floor of number 16 has a rusticated appearance. A six-panelled house door, with a fanlight containing intersecting, diagonally-set glazing bars, is located on the left side. A late 20th-century display window has been inserted on the right side; the 1988 list description notes that double doors were originally present, with top panels that opened and had glazing bars matching the fanlight above the house door. Number 17 features a late 20th-century shop front, although a section of the original rusticated walling remains on the right-hand side. The upper storeys have sash windows set within recessed box frames. All but the second-storey sashes at number 17 have six panes each. A wooden eaves cornice runs along the top of the building. The houses are part of a wider group, which also includes numbers 18, 19 and 20.