Clarence House

Clarence House, Tewkesbury

A town house with shop, dating from the early 16th century but refronted around 1650 and raised in the late 17th century. The interior was substantially remodelled in the 17th century, principally around 1650. The building is constructed with close-stud timber-framing and plaster infill, with a tile roof and brick chimney stacks.

The plan comprises a front range with jettied stages that projects well forward from the original side-entry right-angle arrangement. The top floor has a flat roof with deep bracket eaves. A long rear wing is gabled, with 20th-century extensions at ground-floor level. A central well staircase is fronted by a full-width main room, with a narrower wing beyond.

The building rises four storeys with a basement. The top floor features a central two-light casement flanked by horizontal elliptical bull's-eyes with a central mullion and four keys. The first and second floors have windows running the full width of the front with a central canted oriel of ten lights, incorporating a transom, though three mullions have been removed from the first-floor central lower lights. A plate-glass 19th-century shop front with fluted pilasters is set beneath, with a deep-recessed central doorway. All framing members display sunk panel enrichment, some including trefoil heads, and the window members are moulded. The bressumers above the first and second floors are moulded, with shaped jetty-brackets beneath. The top eaves soffit has long scrolled brackets and a moulded cornice, with carved brackets and wall decoration to the returns. The brick chimney stack is positioned at the left party wall, at the beginning of the high gable.

Internally, the ground-floor shop contains very large posts to the front, though the bressumer is concealed. Four bays sit on varied posts and beams, with one featuring an ovolo-moulded post and a chamfered and stopped beam. The basement is not accessible.

The first-floor front room contains a remarkable mid-17th-century four-compartment ceiling with high-relief decoration comprising a wreath with rosettes and winged cherub-heads to the spandrels. A broad beam carries egg-and-dart and palmette enrichment around the periphery of the room and into the central oriel. The window members are ovolo-moulded with early catches surviving. The fireplace in the left party wall dates to the late 19th century. The rear room features a prominent cruck-like corner post and a cambered central beam.

The tight 17th-century well staircase, constructed in stripped hardwood, has a large moulded solid string, square newels with ball finials, bold turned balusters and heavy handrail, with a wall-rail swept round the well.

The second floor has a massive central transverse beam with sunk soffits, all plastered with a cornice mould. The third floor contains a very large plain transverse beam with a cruck-like prop, and two blocked lights, one with an ovolo-moulded transom. A rear attic room has one large rough purlin with light wind-bracing. Various frame members are found throughout the building, including one large tie-beam that has been cut to allow access to an upper level.

The mid-seventeenth-century refronting shares strong similarities with No.132. This is a very fine merchant's house, with the mid-seventeenth-century remodelling including notable features such as the rare surviving plasterwork to the first-floor main chamber.