Masonic Hall, Caretaker'S House At Rear And Garden Walls At Left And Rear

Masonic Hall, caretaker's house at rear and garden walls at left and rear

A substantial town house on Bridgeland Street, Bideford, originally built as part of a larger property that included the adjacent No 11. Now in use as a Masonic hall with a caretaker's house at the rear. The building dates from 1692, with the front refaced and the rear wing widened during the 19th century.

The main structure has solid rendered walls, probably brick underneath, with slate roofs and crested red ridge-tiles on the front range. Three rendered chimneys are present: one at the left end of the front ridge and two at the rear. The building rises to two storeys with a garret at the rear.

The symmetrical four-window front is covered with rusticated render and features a raised band above the ground storey, with a moulded wooden eaves-cornice. The windows are segmental-headed with moulded flush frames containing 6-paned sashes; the sills are supported by small brackets at each end, and the ground-storey sills have low decorated iron guards on top. The centrepiece is a wide doorway flanked by plain-shafted Ionic columns supporting an entablature with a pulvinated frieze and modillioned cornice. The segmental-headed doorway contains a square-headed moulded architrave and an 8-panelled door, with a low wooden dog- or child-gate with turned balusters in front of it. To the left of the doorcase is an iron hook and ring, presumably for tying up dogs or horses.

The rear wall of the rear range, visible from Ropewalk, has segmental-headed flush-framed windows containing 6 or 8-paned sashes. One ground-storey window retains early thick glazing-bars. A modillioned eaves cornice runs along this elevation. The left-hand garden wall, adjoining Lavington Chapel, is constructed of old red and yellow brick dating probably from the late 17th century. The rear wall fronting Ropewalk is similarly built, standing on a high stone-rubble plinth.

The interior plan comprises a front range with a through-passage at the right-hand side, the staircase to the left of it, and a room beyond that. The rear wing contains one room with a range behind it parallel to the street. At the rear of the through-passage is a round arch with moulded imposts. Beyond it, to the left, a door leads to the staircase, which is half-glazed with coloured glass and a fanlight with Gothic glazing-bars.

The open-well wooden staircase rising to the second storey has closed, pulvino-moulded strings, stout turned balusters, and square newels with flat moulded caps carrying ball-finials, probably a later addition. The broad flat moulded handrail is accompanied by an ornate moulded ceiling with thick moulded ribs. A round centre panel with guilloche decoration is flanked by two shaped panels, the whole enclosed in an oblong, with a foliated boss in the centre. A modillioned cornice enriched with egg-and-dart decoration runs around the wall-tops.

The ground-storey front and wing rooms have been combined into a single dining-room. The front part has raised bolection-moulded panelling and a foliated cornice, with an early 19th-century reeded door-frame with carved flowers in the top corners. The second-storey rooms above are similarly combined to form an imposing Masonic temple with a painted coved ceiling and columns. The rear section in the wing has a raised bolection-moulded architrave and moulded cornice. The front section features raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panelling in early to mid-18th-century style. The front room over the through-passage has part of a box-cornice, apparently cut off when the house was divided. While some panelling clearly dates from the 19th or early 20th century, the bulk of the bolection-moulded panelling is almost certainly original. The rear range was not inspected internally, but the ground-storey window retains early to mid-18th-century shutters with raised-and-fielded ovolo-moulded panels.

The building is Bideford Bridge Trust property, built under a lease dated 21 September 1693 granted to John Smith, a merchant. A second lease of 20 May 1698 describes it as the house "wherein the said John Smith now dwelleth and heretofore lately built by him", with a frontage of 80 feet. By 1784, when it was known as the Great House, it had already been divided into two houses, and by 1792 the eastern house (No 11) had been rebuilt. The Freemasons have occupied their hall at No 12 since at least 1895.