25 And 27, Market Place

25 AND 27 MARKET PLACE, CIRENCESTER

A complex of three buildings forming a single shop premises on the north side of Market Place. The buildings date from the late 17th century through to the 19th century, with successive refrontings and alterations.

The leftmost building is a 19th-century frontage of three storeys and an attic, with a two-window range. The first floor has two timber windows with top-hung lights, cut off by the shopfront below, in plain reveals. The second floor has two 19th-century plate glass sashes in flat unmoulded surrounds with Tudor-arched tops. The ground floor has a mid-20th-century shopfront extending across to the adjoining building. Two hipped dormers with two-light timber casements sit above. The building has pilaster strips to the left and right angles, a bracketed frieze, moulded cornice, and a coped parapet. The roof is Welsh slate with a parapet.

The centre building is an early to mid-18th-century refronting of what was probably a late 17th or early 18th-century house. It is three storeys and an attic with a three-window range. The first floor has three 19th-century plate glass horned sashes in flat unmoulded segmental-headed surrounds. The second floor has three six-pane-over-six-pane sashes in similar surrounds with projecting cills. The ground floor has the mid-20th-century shopfront. The building has rusticated quoins to the left and right angles, a band course over the first floor, and a moulded stone cornice serving as the parapet above the eaves. An early 19th-century ashlar stack rises to the right side of this building; a rendered ridge stack has been truncated.

The rightmost building is late 17th or early 18th-century, three storeys and an attic with a three-window range. This building was originally two separate structures. The first floor has two three-light timber mullion-and-transom windows with leaded upper lights in moulded timber surrounds with timber cills. A similar window, now cut off below the transom, has been truncated to accommodate the shopfront. The second floor has six similar two-light timber mullion-and-transom windows with leaded lights. The ground floor has a mid-20th-century shopfront to the left, continuous from the adjoining building. To the right of this building's ground floor is a shopfront with a canted bay window featuring moulded glazing bars to the upper portion, a recessed glazed 20th-century door to the left, and pilasters with a moulded cornice and projecting canopy (19th century with 20th-century alterations). A through-passage to the rear has a moulded stone architrave to its front, with two chamfered beams in the passage, the rear beam carrying a diagonal stop. Three gabled dormers with two-light leaded casements sit above. The building has a moulded timber eaves cornice and a moulded lead hopper head and lead downpipe to the centre front. A large 19th-century brick extension extends to the rear, with a 20th-century reconstituted stone extension beyond.

All three buildings are fronted with stucco and topped with Welsh slate roofs. A large brick stack rises to the rear of the rightmost building.

Interior

The ground floors have been extensively altered for shop use. On the far right of the ground floor is a beam with a broad chamfer, run-out stop, and notch, with three parallel beams to the rear boxed-out. The ground floor centre is heavily altered. Part of a plastered beam with a broad chamfer is visible on the ground floor left.

The rightmost building has a 19th-century well staircase with turned balusters rising from ground to second floor.

The centre building contains a staircase in late 18th-century style with two turned balusters per tread, shaped cheekpieces, and a mahogany grip handrail; this may be a late 18th-century rearrangement or reproduction. The first floor right has a two-light timber mullion-and-transom window in an office to the rear. The second floor right has a small stone fireplace and a plank door. The far right second floor contains a plastered beam with unstopped chamfers. The centre of this floor has a similar beam and an early 18th-century chimney-breast cupboard, damaged, with a timber cornice. Two winder staircases sit within this building. The third floor right displays parts of the roof structure with clasped purlins and a ridge piece carried on a short yoke.

The centre building has remains of a late 17th-century closed-string splat baluster staircase rising from the second to third floors. A three-bay butt-purlin roof extends to the front; the rear has three bays with curved principals.

The leftmost building has a 19th-century winder staircase from the second floor to the attic and a butt-purlin roof.