40, St Mary Street

This is a mid-to-late 18th-century house, now used as a shop, located in Bridgwater. The exterior is constructed of Flemish bond brick, with a stone moulded coping to the parapet, a dentilled cornice, quoins, and cills. The front facade has been later rendered with incised stucco. The building has a double-depth plan with a rear wing angled to the right. It has three storeys and an attic, with a four-window front. The roof is a steep mansard hipped roof covered in pantiles, featuring three brick stacks on the right-hand wall. The upper floors have horned sash windows with flat arches; the second floor windows have 3/3 panes, and the first floor windows have 6/6 panes. A 20th-century shop front occupies the ground floor, with a recessed central door and a 20th-century door providing access to the upper floors on the left side. A lead rainwater pipe has a decorative hopper head on the right side of the building.

The interior retains considerable 18th-century character. A passage to the upper floors features a flagstone floor, two segmental arches with panelled soffits supported by moulded consoles, and a modillion cornice. A rear doorway is accompanied by a painted semicircular overlight. The front room of the shop has a dentilled cornice, a wide segmental arch leading to the rear, and a deep segmental recess on the right. The rear wing also has a flagstone floor. Two staircases are present: one to the rear left with a swept handrail, tall stick balusters, and turned newels; the other to the right, terminating in a stair-hall with a moulded cornice, ceiling rose, frieze, and a segmental arch to the stair window on the return side. A room on the first floor rear has original skirting, a cornice, a 6-panel door with added moulding, and an 18th-century fireplace with a square moulded surround between panelled pilasters, an entablature with a central panel, and a moulded cornice. A cupboard with a panelled door is located to the right. Windows in the front room have moulded architraves and panelled shutters. A first-floor front room has an early 19th-century Regency-style fireplace with a reeded surround, square foliate motifs at the corners, and a mid-19th-century cast-iron arch-plate grate. The cornice in this room was likely embellished in the mid-to-late 19th century. The second-floor landing has an embellished cornice. A room at the rear of the second floor retains original skirtings, a late 19th-century cast-iron fireplace, and a 4-panel door. Two front rooms exist and one to the right has a simple mid-18th-century wooden fire surround and a mid-19th-century grate. A cupboard on the landing features an 18th-century spring catch and H hinges. The attic has trenched purlins with wind-braces. A large rear attic room, possibly a former workroom, has a raised-and-fielded 2-panel door, a similar panel on the left dividing the room, and a 19th-century tongued-and-grooved dividing wall. Other spaces include an unlit closet on the landing and two rooms to the front.