Harbour View

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 NEWCOMEN ROAD 673-1/8/189 (West side) No.27 Harbour View

GV II

Originally a merchant's house, later shop with accommodation above, now holiday flats. c1640, front altered in mid/late C19, some C20 modernisation and C20 rear service block. Mixed construction; stone rubble side walls with plastered timber-framed front and back walls; stone rubble stack in right party wall with C19 plastered brick chimneyshaft; slate roof. PLAN: Built end onto street, one room wide and 2 rooms deep. Side passage along right party wall and newel stair just rear of centre in an alcove in right party wall. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; one-window front, with mid C19 plaster lightly blocked as ashlar. Ground-floor level has altered C19 timber shop front. Doorway to right, to former shop and passage, contains C20 part-glazed door and shop window to left has replacement glazing bars. Fascia above with brackets each end. First-floor canted bay contains front horned 4-pane sash and modillion cornice to hipped roof. Second floor has horned 4-pane sash. Timber modillion eaves cornice to hipped roof. Rear is gabled. INTERIOR: Although much is covered by later plaster, it seems that the C17 structure is well-preserved. Ground-floor former shop was not available for inspection, but beam in passage is plastered. Newel stair from ground to first floor rising round mast-like timber newel post. 2 first-floor rooms divided by partition of C17 small-field panelling. Both rooms have ovolo-moulded crossbeams, front room with exposed scratch-moulded joists, and rear room with good original ceiling of ornamental plasterwork; front bay with boss and cast motifs, rear bay with a single rib pattern and large angle sprays. Front room fireplace has probably C18 timber eared chimneypiece and contains C19 grate. Second-floor front fireplace has C19 chimneypiece and is blocked. Most of the joinery is C19 and C20, but C17 panelled cupboard door first-floor front and at least one C18 two-panel door. Roof of C17 A-frame trusses with pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collars with threaded purlins. Secondary front hip but original rear gable structure which may indicate more C17 carpentry below. Also C17 panelling shows in the roofspace, covered up below by plasterboard on the crosswall between the second-floor chambers. This is an unusual survival; a well-preserved C17 merchant's house on the fringe of the the main historic town centre.

Listing NGR: SX8779151069