Ladybellegate House

GLOUCESTER

SO8318NW LONGSMITH STREET 844-1/8/194 (North side) 23/01/52 No.20 Ladybellegate House

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Town house, now offices. Built c1704 for Edward Wagstaffe, remodelled 1740-43 for Henry Guise, later C18 alterations, restored late C20. Stuccoed brick, stone details, slate roof. Double-depth block behind shallow forecourt; wide central hall with stair well at rear, and on the first floor above the hall a cross-gallery, later subdivided. EXTERIOR: three storeys and cellar. Symmetrical front of seven bays with offset plinth, raised and chamfered quoins at the corners of the front and crowning modillion cornice with stone capped parapet above; the entrance doorway in the central bay is framed by three-quarter Ionic columns supporting an entablature and pediment; the door with a lower cross-braced panel and four fielded panels above; on each-floor sashes of similar size with renewed glazing bars (3x4 panes) in plain openings with projecting sills. Kip's view of Gloucester, c1712, shows the front with a crowning central pediment: the existing doorcase and crowning pediment are mid to late C18 alterations. Rear elevation has raised bands at first and second-floor levels, irregular fenestration of sashes with glazing bars (mostly 3x4 panes) and, lighting the stairwell, at low level a semicircular arched sash, and at higher level a larger, semicircular arched sash, both with glazing bars. INTERIOR: contains mid C18 features of exceptional quality; entrance hall has decorative stone paving, fielded dado panelling with full height fielded panels above, and fielded panel doors; at rear of hall open well staircase with bottom curtail step and quarter landings rising to first and second floors has open strings with richly carved tread-end brackets, panelled risers, twisted column-on-vase balusters, two to each tread and four close-set balusters on a common base in lieu of newels, ramped handrail swept around the bottom curtail step and a raised and fielded stair dado. Other principal rooms have panelling similar to the hall. Richly moulded plasterwork in rococo style of 1740-43 to the hall ceiling, above the stairwell, on the soffits of the flights of the staircase, and in many of the principal rooms, with modillion cornices and elaborately moulded panels incorporating the swan crest of the Guise family; the ceiling

over the stair well modelled in high relief with the figure of Jupiter sitting on clouds with an eagle, other ceilings incorporate heads in roundels. In one room a carved stone chimney-piece with a niche above. A large brick vaulted cellar. Of principal note for the outstanding quality of the 1740s plasterwork. HISTORY: from 1732 to 1757 the house was sub-let to Robert Raikes senior except for 1740 to 1743, when it was leased to Henry Guise of Elmore. From 1757 to 1772 it was leased to Robert Raikes junior.

Listing NGR: SO8300318556