16 And 17, Market Place

This is a grocer's shop with accommodation above, built in 1895 by RT Hookway of Bideford. It is located on the east side of Bideford Market Place, and was originally shown on Ordnance Survey maps as numbers 15 and 16. The building is constructed of rendered solid front with a slate roof. A red-brick chimney is located on the ridge, off-centre to the right, and another is present on the left rear wing, which is visible from the nearby car park.

The building is designed in an Italian Renaissance style and stands three storeys high. The front facade is broad, featuring a four-window range with a four-bay design. Distinctive pilasters, each with a different style, support entablatures above each floor. The first and third bays from the left are narrower, while the second and fourth bays are wider. The ground floor showcases panelled Doric pilasters, each with a diamond-shaped panel at the centre. Foliated brackets, resembling capitals, are superimposed on the architrave and frieze, with the cornice projecting over them. Original display windows remain in the fourth bay from the left, comprising three round-arched openings with traceried spandrels; the outer openings are glazed, and the central one provides access to recessed, half-glazed double doors featuring solid moulded panels at the base. The ceiling above the recessed doorway is panelled. A matching window head survives in the left-hand bay, and the third bay from the left contains a pair of recessed doorways (the door on the right being four-panelled), with a panelled pilaster in between.

The second floor features panelled pilasters adorned with foliated capitals and circular panels in the shafts. The entablature includes a panelled frieze that projects over the pilasters, and diamond-shaped panels are positioned above each window. The wider bays incorporate bay windows with rounded corners and entablatures with panelled friezes, while the narrower left-hand bay has a three-light window, and the third bay from the left features a pair of windows, each with a single light. All windows are sash windows with horns, with margin panes in the middle lights of the left-hand window and the two bay windows. The third floor has fluted Doric pilasters extending to a dentilled cornice. The wider bays contain three-light windows with shaped flat surrounds. A pair of segmental-headed windows with moulded architraves and buttresses at the foot is positioned in the third bay from the right. The upper sashes of these windows are nine-paned or three-paned in the sidelights; the left-hand window, with its flat shaped surround, is now blind.

The front of the building is finished with a panelled parapet, broken above the pilasters by panelled pedestals that carry urns. The rear wall, visible from Bridge Street car park, presents two rear wings: the wing to the left (north) is constructed of exposed rubble masonry, while the wing to the right is rendered. Between these wings is a lower, flat-roofed range. The interior has not been inspected. The building is included for group value.