8, Castle Street

BRIDGWATER

ST2937SE CASTLE STREET 736-1/10/23 (North side) 24/03/50 No.8 (Formerly Listed as: CASTLE STREET (North side) Nos.6-14 (Even) No.16)

GV I

House, later a nursing home, now (1991) vacant. 1723-1728 for James Brydges, the Duke of Chandos. By Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, the Duke's London surveyors. Flemish-bond brick, red to the ground floor which is continuous with No 6 to the right (qv), red and yellow to the upper floors where there is a vertical joint to the right; moulded stone cornice with joint to the right and swept up to meet that of No 10 (qv) to the left; stone cyma-moulded architraves cut from rectangular blocks set into the brickwork; stone brackets and cills; double-pitched plain tile roof with a flat roof between the ridges; brick stacks to gable ends. Double-depth plan. 3 storeys with attic and cellar; symmetrical 5-window range. C20 glass to 6/6-pane sash windows. The C20 door is set in a bolection-moulded architrave with plinths, below a shallow hood with a moulded cornice on brackets. To the right is a wide segmental brick arch to the cellar and to the left are 2 similar narrower arches below the windows. INTERIOR: remodelled; a late C19 narrow semi-elliptical arch with paired consoles and foliate central rose to the rear passage leading to a simple C19 conservatory with margin-pane glazing over 2 panels to the door. The room to ground-floor front right has late C18 semi-elliptical arched recesses flanking an Adam-style fire-surround; this is painted wood with a richly ornamented cornice, a fluted frieze with vase ends and blocks over pendant palmettes to the pilasters. A white marble inset has an ornamental wood frame and a beaded arris. Panelled shutters and a late C18 six-panel door. The room to the ground-floor rear left has a tall thin 4-panel door, a high dado rail and ovolo moulded frames to plain full-height panelling. The room is divided laterally at the chimney breast by a C20 glass screen; the rear wall has been set back approx 2m and has C20 sloping glass roof and French windows. The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an important group, unusual for their scale and ambition outside London's West End. (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: ST2993037192