Bearland House And Attached Railings And Gates To Forecourt

Bearland House and attached railings and gates to forecourt

A substantial town house on Longsmith Street in Gloucester, now in office use. Built circa 1735–1740 as a rebuilding or extensive remodelling and enlargement of a late 17th or early 18th-century house. The building was constructed for William Jones, a prominent Gloucester attorney, and his mother, who occupied part of it as a separate dwelling. Flanking wings were added to the forecourt around 1750, though the west wing was demolished circa 1912 and replaced by a fire station. The house underwent minor alterations in the late 18th and 19th centuries, followed by extensive restoration and conversion to professional offices in 1980 by the architects Preece Payne Partnership.

Materials consist of brick with stone details, rendered brick to the rear, a slate roof, and brick chimney stacks.

The plan comprises a double-depth main block with a lower wing on the north side of the entrance forecourt. At the heart of the main block is a wide central hall with the principal staircase at the far end, rising to a former cross gallery on the first floor, now subdivided.

The main block (No. 59) presents three storeys above a cellar. Its symmetrical front comprises seven bays with a slight projection to the three central bays. The ground floor features a projecting porch in the central bay, flanked by rusticated stone dados of chamfered ashlars on an offset plinth with capping linking the ground-floor window sills. Stone bands mark the first and second-floor levels, with a slighter first-floor sill band. A stone crowning modillion cornice with blocking course runs across the façade. Above the three central bays stands a balustrade parapet with turned balusters between square terminal piers surmounted by large, richly carved urns, with smaller carved urns above the outer corners. Raised and chamfered stone quoins painted black appear at the angles of the central projection and outer corners.

The projecting stone porch has a pair of Roman Ionic columns supporting an entablature with pulvinated frieze and pediment. The doorway is flanked by Ionic pilasters and features an eight-panel door with alternating pairs of large and small fielded panels. In the central bays either side of the porch and on the first and second floors are sashes in openings with moulded stone architraves and full entablatures above ground and first-floor openings. The architrave to the central first-floor opening is eared and shouldered; that to the central second-floor opening is eared at all corners and raised at the top with decorative carving. In the side bays, all openings have contrasting red brick quoins, rubbed brick flat arched heads, and projecting stone sills. All sashes contain glazing bars on the ground and first floors (3×4 panes) and in the short sashes on the second floor (3×2 panes), many retaining 18th-century glass.

The rear of the main block is rendered except for an early 19th-century two-storey canted bay in painted brick to the left, with stone bands at floor, window sill, and parapet levels. Each face of the bay on both floors has a horned sash with central glazing bar. To the right of the bay is a large sash with glazing bars in an opening with a segmental brick arched head lighting the stairwell. The wall to the right was largely rebuilt in the 20th century with sashes matching the originals.

Internally, the main block features an entrance hall with raised fielded dado panelling and full-height fielded panelling above. Raised fielded panel doors with moulded architraves lead from the hall. A transverse moulded timber basket arch supported on moulded pilasters spans the hall, its spandrels infilled with richly carved and pierced acanthus panels.

The open-well staircase with half landing rises to the first floor. The open strings display a small fielded panel above a richly carved end bracket below each tread end, with the soffit of the upper flight moulded to the profile of the end brackets. The balustrade sweeps around the bottom curtail step. Four twisted column-on-vase balusters serve as newels at the bottom step and at the end of the first-floor landing balustrade; otherwise three column-on-vase newel balusters occupy each tread, with a ramped handrail. The stairwell dado is raised and fielded. An arched window to the stair landing has panelled reveals flanked by pilasters. Moulded plaster ceilings and enriched dentil cornices ornament the hall and stairwell.

On the first floor, at the centre of the former cross gallery, a transverse moulded timber basket arch supported on moulded pilasters is infilled with a later panelled screen. A large room to the rear right, with canted bay on the first floor, contains early to mid-19th-century details and a moulded marble chimney piece. Other rooms retain early 18th-century panelling and moulded cornices, with several rooms preserving 18th-century chimney pieces. Extensive brick cellars, vaulted in part, lie beneath the building.

The wing (No. 57) comprises two storeys with a symmetrical front to the forecourt in three bays. A simple moulded stone crowning cornice with parapet above is pierced by an open balustrade panel above each bay. The central doorway has a moulded stone architrave crowned by an entablature with pulvinated frieze and segmental pediment. Both floors contain sashes with glazing bars (3×3 panes) in openings with red brick flat arches and projecting stone sills. The interior of the wing was remodelled in the late 20th century.

Fronting the forecourt is a restored 18th-century wrought-iron railing with central double gates framed by decorative flanking panels and an overthrow, both of which are listed features.