31, Bridgeland Street

31 Bridgeland Street, Bideford

This is the centre part of a large house that originally encompassed Numbers 30 and 32, now subdivided into shops, offices and a flat. The building dates from 1692, with the front remodelled in the early 19th century and minor additions at the rear during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The structure has solid rendered walls, probably brick underneath, and a slate roof with red brick chimneys on the right side-wall and a rendered chimney on the left. The building presents a double-fronted, double-depth plan with two rooms at the front, a central entrance passage leading to a staircase compartment in the centre of the rear section.

The façade is three storeys tall with a three-window range. The top storey is an early 19th-century heightening that conceals the original garret, visible where the right-hand side of the rear wall remains unraised. The entire front is early 19th-century work, featuring a giant reeded pilaster-strip at the left-hand end; a matching pilaster-strip has likely been removed from the right-hand end, as evidenced by the eaves cornice breaking forward at that point.

The centre doorway has a wooden case with attached columns supporting an entablature with modillioned cornice. The door itself is round-arched with a moulded archivolt springing from moulded imposts and panelled reveals. It is a six-panelled door with the four upper panels raised and fielded, and the two lowest panels flush; the rear plate of an old knocker survives, though the striker is missing. Flanking the doorway are a pair of projecting, mirrored shop fronts, probably from the late 19th or early 20th century, each with a canted display window and shop door. The left-hand shop retains panelled and fluted pilaster-strips, a cornice across the front, and an original half-glazed shop door; the right-hand shop has been altered but retains two fluted pilaster-strips flanking the shop door.

The upper storeys have sash windows, the older examples with recessed box-frames. Most windows have small panes, except for the lower sashes in the second storey. The outer second-storey windows have been enlarged, probably in the early 19th century, and feature eight-paned sashes; other windows have six-paned sashes. A moulded eaves cornice runs across the front.

Interior

The interior retains three ceilings with shaped panels formed by plaster bolection-mouldings. The entrance passage features a ceiling with oblong panels and moulded cornice, with several boarded-in doors with moulded architraves.

The main staircase rises to the third storey and is a wooden dog-leg construction with heavily-moulded closed strings and square newels. It has heavy turned balusters (boarded in between ground and second storeys), a broad flat handrail sweeping up to newels at the landings, and oblong bolection-moulded panels on the underside of the flights. An early 19th-century six-panelled door is positioned at the rear of the second-storey landing.

The ground-storey shop to the left of the entrance has a front room with raised-and-fielded, one-fillet ovolo-moulded panelling, probably early 18th-century, with a box-cornice. A later doorway cuts through the rear wall. A six-panelled door (probably 18th or early 19th-century) opens to the entrance passage. The display window has an early 19th-century reeded surround with a carved flower in the top right-hand corner. Two round-headed, semi-circular niches flank the chimneybreast to the left. The rear room has a moulded cornice.

The right-hand ground-storey shop has a front room with a foliated cornice and an early 19th-century six-panelled door opening to the entrance passage. The rear room was not inspected.

The second storey is now sub-divided by late 20th-century partitions, but the original arrangement is easily distinguishable. The right-hand front room has a ceiling with shaped panels and a coved foliated cornice with a foliated boss in the centre panel. A mid or late 19th-century chimneypiece (now painted) stands to the right, featuring a mantelshelf with carved brackets. The rear room retains remains of a moulded cornice. Back stairs are plain, without a balustrade. The left-hand front room has a moulded cornice. The rear room has a ceiling with shaped panels and a box-cornice; a wooden chimneypiece, probably early 18th-century, occupies the left side-wall and features panelled pilasters and entablature. To the left of the chimneybreast is an original cupboard with panelled bolection-moulded doors with shaped H-hinges; inside are old wooden coat-pegs.

The third storey has three original two-panelled, bolection-moulded doors leading to the left-hand front room and the middle and right-hand rear rooms. Two early 18th-century doors with six raised-and-fielded panels survive; a third, plainer six-panelled door to a rear closet may have been remodelled. The front right-hand room has, to the left of the chimneybreast, an early 18th-century round-headed cupboard with moulded architrave and double plank doors underneath with H-hinges.

Historical Context

This building was part of a larger Bideford Bridge Trust property originally comprising Numbers 30–32. The first lease, dated 1692, was granted to Thomas Power of Bideford, a merchant. The site was then 92 feet wide with a small lane, now Queen Street, on the east. The property appears to have originally been a U-shaped house; the remains of the rear wings now lie behind Numbers 30 and 32.