Auriol House

Auriol House is a row house with shop and multiple occupancies located on the east side of the High Street in Tewkesbury. Although dated 1606, the building was substantially rebuilt and extended around 1845.

The structure comprises a tall front block with twin Dutch gables and a long extension to the rear. Access to the main house is through an early doorway in the ground floor of the adjoining building (No.123), leading into a courtyard closed by a substantial porch constructed as part of the mid-19th century extensions. The front elevation is rendered, while brick with stone dressings forms the remainder of the exterior, which is covered by a tile roof with brick chimney stacks.

The front facade, executed in Domestic Tudor style around 1845, stands four storeys high with a basement and displays two windows per floor. All windows are small casements with horizontal bars and stone ovolo-mould surrounds featuring mullions, transoms, and moulded stopped drip-courses. The gables contain small single-light windows, while the second floor has small two-light windows. At first floor level sit two recessed square panels with raised shields flanking a canted bow window with 1:3:1-lights and transom. Above this runs a frieze with diamond recessed panels and decorative cresting incorporating the date 1606. Below the moulded cill is panelled breastwork linked to a plain fascia in a raised mould. The ground floor features a central canted doorway beneath the bay, containing a pair of 19th-century glazed doors with arched heads. The returns have lofty side-lights with a transom, and on either side stands a tall two-light display window. The entire composition sits upon a plinth with simple string courses at first and second floor levels. The high shaped gables have moulded saddle-back copings, with parapets returning at each side. A large 17th-century brick stack rises from the left party wall. Beneath No.123 is a fine wide early 17th-century studded plank door in a flat four-centred moulded head and frame stopped to the plinth.

The stone-paved throughway and court beyond is closed by a transverse full-width gabled porch built in brick with stone dressings, featuring an arched doorway and sidelights. The rear wing extends over three floors with a variety of stone-mullioned casement windows and a one-storey bay window with stone hipped roof. A doorway formerly provided access to the ground floor of the front block. Beyond the porch stands an external stack carried on a moulded stone corbel at first floor level.

The interior of the rebuilt older section was not fully accessible at survey, though earlier documentation refers to some panelling. The ground floor has been opened into one continuous full-depth space, though it originally contained two cross walls to an entrance lobby from the side door, now opened with wide elliptical arches. The front room retains a blocked fireplace and preserves the show-cases flanking the High Street entrance, part of the 1845 shopfront design. The rear space retains a continuous cornice and frieze, both products of the 19th-century reconstruction.

A winder stair with brick treads and timber nosings to the right descends to the basement. The basement contains two very wide chamfered and stopped beams, presumably dating to 1606. The front and rear brick walls feature a series of broad Gothic arched recesses, and the north wall contains a deep recess, likely a former chimney breast. The rear porch is finished with a fine Minton tile geometric floor pattern. The rear wing contains a richly detailed open-well oak staircase rising through both floors.