4 And 4A, Bridgeland Street

Large house, now offices and shop. Built in 1692, remodelled externally and in part of the interior during the early and mid-19th century, with a 20th-century addition at the rear. The structure has solid rendered walls; the rear wing shows a small patch of old brickwork, now painted, at ground-storey level. Slate roof with two panelled red brick chimneys (rebuilt in the 20th century): one on the right-hand end of the ridge, the other off-centre to the left.

The building is three rooms wide and two rooms deep, with a rear wing to the left that is almost certainly original. The ground storey contains two shops at the front with an entrance passage between them, leading to the staircase in the rear left-hand corner of the main range. There are two storeys with a garret.

The six-window front has the upper storey covered with rusticated render, with window-heads marked to resemble voussoirs. The ground storey has an early or mid-19th-century doorcase in the third bay from the left, with matching shop fronts (inserted after 1924) at either side. The wooden doorcase has attached columns and an entablature with modillioned cornice and panelled reveals. The door has four raised panels with a cobweb fanlight above. The shop fronts are flanked by Doric pilasters supporting an entablature with modillioned cornice. The upper-storey windows are eight-paned sashes with thick glazing bars, set in slightly recessed box-frames. A modillioned eaves cornice runs across the front, with a shaped rainwater-head, possibly original, under the eaves at the centre. There are three dormers with hipped slate roofs and two-light wood casements, each light with six panes and a pointed head. The rear slope of the roof has two dormers matching those at the front. The rear wing has a modillioned eaves cornice similar to that at the front.

Interior: The shop to the right has an early 19th-century moulded cornice and two reeded doorframes with flowers carved in the top corners. The shop to the left has a moulded cornice, possibly original. A room in the rear wing has panelled shutters. The entrance passage has a panelled dado and moulded cornice. There is a round arch at the rear and another leading into the stair compartment, both with moulded imposts. An open-well wooden staircase rises to the garret, with close strings bearing pulvinated moulding, twisted balusters, and square newels with flat moulded caps; a flat handrail is ramped up to them at the landings. A plain oval skylight lights the stairwell. The second-storey middle front room has a coved foliated cornice and a ceiling with deep moulded ribs; a quatrefoil in the centre is surrounded by a shaped panel in each corner. There is a two-panelled bolection-moulded door, re-set. The room to the right has an ogee-moulded box cornice. Windows have panelled shutters with an ovolo-moulded panel below each and a raised, bolection-moulded dado-panel between the windows. The left-hand front room has a box cornice and a two-panelled bolection-moulded door with shaped H-hinges, accessed from the staircase through a small lobby with moulded cornice. A fixed cupboard with bolection-moulded panelled doors contains old wooden coat-pegs. All three front rooms have carved wooden chimneypieces, probably early 20th century. A room in the rear wing was refurbished in the mid-19th century with an enriched cornice and ceiling-boss, panelled shutters, a white marble chimneypiece with iron grate, and coloured patterned tiles on the jambs and hearth. The roofs of both the main range and wing have heavy, boxed-in principal rafters.

Historical context: A photograph of the front before the insertion of shops (reproduced in Richardson and Gill) shows the ground storey was then rusticated with eight-paned sashes matching the upper storey. The property was initially leased by the Bideford Bridge Trust in 1692 to Christopher Pollard, a merchant. The lease changed hands in 1704, 1714, and 1727.