Former Solicitor's Office is a Grade II listed building in the Lake District National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 25 March 1970. A Post-Medieval Store.

Former Solicitor's Office

WRENN ID
dark-iron-linden
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Lake District National Park
Constituency
Westmorland and Lonsdale MP: Tim Farron (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
25 March 1970
Type
Store
Period
Post-Medieval
Address
Former Solicitor's Office, Main Street, Hawkshead, Westmorland and Furness
OS grid reference
SD 352 981
Coordinates
54.37508, -2.99873
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The former solicitor's office, now a National Trust store, is likely from the 17th century but was refaced in the 19th century. It features a stucco exterior and a slate roof, standing two stories tall with three bays. The building has a top frieze and deep bracketed eaves, with quoins at the corners. The first bay includes a first-floor passage leading to Red Lion Yard. The ground floor has a canted bay window with small-paned glazing and iron rails in the second bay, while the third bay contains a window with paired sashes that have glazing bars and horns. On the first floor, the windows are sashed with glazing bars and have label moulds; the second bay's window also has horns, and the third bay features a Venetian window with sashes, glazing bars, and horns. The entrance is marked by an architrave and a four-panel door. The building has lateral and gable-end stacks, and the rear includes a horizontally sliding sash window in the attic. The rear wing has a recess on the ground floor with access to a slate cellar, and three-light wooden-mullioned windows on two sides of the recess. There was once an open gallery above, which has now been infilled with glazed bricks. The interior is reported to contain 18th-century fittings according to a National Trust survey. The office was once owned by W. Heelis, who was the husband of Beatrix Potter, and the property is a gift to the National Trust from her.

Local climate

Former Solicitor's Office sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,530 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 96% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 52 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 93% of listed buildings. Of these, 29 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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