14, Castle Street

BRIDGWATER

ST2937SE CASTLE STREET 736-1/10/28 (North side) 24/03/50 No.14 (Formerly Listed as: CASTLE STREET (North side) Nos.6-14 (Even) No.16)

GV I

House, now offices. 1723-8. For James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. By Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, the Duke's London surveyors. Remodelled internally late C18. Red and yellow Flemish-bond brick, moulded stone coping to the parapet, cornice, architraves and doorcase, plain tile roof with brick stacks to gable ends of house, zig-zag tiles to roof of rear wing which is hipped to rear. Double-depth plan with 2-storey rear wing to right. 3 storeys; symmetrical 5-window range. Substantial cornice beneath parapet. Segmental-arched moulded architraves with plain cills and moulded brackets to 6/6-pane sash windows, those to ground floor have plate glass to the lower sashes. 3 semi-elliptical shaped steps lead up to tall 6-panel door with added moulding to the upper panels and beaded moulding to the base set in a moulded architrave with a keystone. The doorcase has a shallow hood with a dentilled cornice and pulvinated frieze supported by Corinthian pilasters. To the right are 2 segmental brick arches to cellar and one to the left, a fourth probably obscured by the raised street level. Early C18 sash with thick glazing bars to rear. INTERIOR: To right of central hall, which has late C18 reeded cornice, is a late C18 open-well, open-string staircase with stick balusters, fretted ends, turned newels and a wreathed mahogany handrail and curtail step. 4-panel early C18 door to base of stairs is set in a late C18 architrave with a fluted pilaster below the dado rail. Stairs to second floor are early C18 closed string with a turned newel and moulded rail. Room to right of first-floor front has full-height raised and fielded panelling. Some early C18 raised and fielded 2-panel doors survive on second floor. The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an important group, unusual for their scale and ambition outside London's West End. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: South and West Somerset: London: 1958-: 100; Colvin H: A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1840: London: 1978-: 428; VCH: Somerset: London: 1992-: 200).

Listing NGR: ST2991437190