The Butterwalk

THE BUTTERWALK, DARTMOUTH

One of a row of merchants' houses on Duke Street, now a shop with accommodation above, this Grade I listed building forms part of one of the finest rows of 17th-century merchants' houses in England. The Butterwalk row is dated 1635 and 1640. The building suffered severe bomb blast damage in 1943 and underwent a major renovation programme in the 1950s, designed by David Nye and Partners of Westminster, London, with construction by PW Wilkins and Sons Ltd of Torquay.

The structure combines mixed construction methods: the side and back walls are of stone rubble, while the front is an ornate display of timber-framing with a plastered upper floor, carried on an arcade of granite piers. Stone rubble stacks with 20th-century rendered brick chimneyshafts rise on the right party wall, and the roof is slate.

The building is smaller than its neighbour, No. 10, and was originally built backing onto the river. It is built end-on to the street, with a ground plan one room wide and two rooms deep, originally with a side passage along the right (east) side. A newel stair rises just back from the front door onto a first-floor landing positioned halfway through the first-floor level, where a small, unlit and unheated room sits between the front and back rooms.

The exterior comprises three storeys with attics and a one-window range. The ornate jettied timber-framed front forms part of the unified frontage of Nos. 6-12 (even), the houses of the Dartmouth Butterwalk. The first floor oversails the Butterwalk and is supported on a carved bressummer mounted on an arcade of granite piers with moulded capitals under blocks carved with geometric and heraldic motifs. A recessed mid-20th-century shop front gives access to the building, with a contemporary door leading to a passage to the right. The first floor displays exposed timber-framing with a largely original moulded small-panel frame on each side, the faces of the original timbers carved with strapwork patterns and guilloche. The centre contains a 7-light mullioned window with iron casements and rectangular panes of leaded glass; a 5-light version appears on the second floor. End posts are carved as Ionic pilasters on pedestals beneath carved brackets supporting second-floor jetties, with paired pilasters on the right party wall. The upper jetty has carved timber fascia boards. The second floor is plastered. The original front gable has been demolished and replaced with an 18th-century timber modillion eaves cornice to a hipped roof. The rear elevation is painted stone rubble with a slate-hung gable and contains mid-20th-century windows with glazing bars.

The interior is of exceptionally high quality and well-preserved. Original features include the newel stair rising around a pine, mast-like newel post, and panelled partitions on the first floor, including a middle-room partition with a carved frieze. The first-floor front parlour retains a panelled crosswall, a granite fireplace with a carved lintel and imported Dutch brick cheeks and back, and an ornamental plaster ceiling. This plaster ceiling is a tour de force, representing the Jesse Tree, and was restored from pieces of the original ceiling which completely collapsed due to the 1943 bomb blast. Photographs by Percy Russell show the ceiling before restoration, complete with two figures which are now missing. Other 17th-century features are likely hidden on the ground and first floors, with others probably surviving on the upper floors. The roof was not inspected.

Historically, the Butterwalk was built on reclaimed land as part of the scheme that created the New Quay. The western half was leased to William Gurney in 1628 and the eastern half to Mark Hawkings. Both began to build, but in 1635 William Gurney sold his part to Hawkings, who completed the row by 1640 at a cost of nearly £2500. The row originally continued one house further east; the Butterwalk arcade originally comprised 13 granite piers but now contains 11.