Numbers 19-21, Attached Gateway And Outbuildings To The Rear Of No 19

This property comprises a house and shop, formerly a pair of houses. The buildings have possible 17th-century origins but were altered and remodelled around 1790. In the late 19th century, the right-hand house was converted to a draper's shop (No 21) with adjoining accommodation (No 19). The shopfront and shop interior date from around 1910 and were created for R P Wheadon, the drapers.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of painted brick, although the ground floor of the east gable wall of No 19 is built of uncoursed limestone rubble. The roof is slate with brick stacks. The parapet features a moulded cornice, and there is stepped stone coping with the base of a ball finial at the left gable end. The rear addition to No 21 is of brick.

Plan Form

The building has a double-depth plan. There have been additions to the rear of both properties: a two-storey extension to No 19, and late 19th-century and early to mid 20th-century additions to No 21, including a large twin-gabled addition added before 1929.

Exterior

The main facade is two storeys with a seven-window range. The windows are grouped: three to the right, three to the left of centre, and one to the far left, possibly indicating that in the 18th century these were two symmetrical three-window range houses with an extra bay to the left. All first-floor windows are six-over-six-pane sashes with stone lintels and prominent keystones.

Beneath the third window from the right is a circa 1790 six-panel door with a fanlight, set in a doorcase with pilasters and festoons to the cornice. Below the four right-hand windows is a fine circa 1910 shopfront which projects forward to the street. It is dominated by a high fascia bearing the words 'COSTUMES DRAPERS R.A.DYER Ltd OUTFITTERS'. The fascia has a dentilled cornice divided into three sections by reeded, panelled consoles; the central part has a swept segmental top decorated with swags and an ornamental keystone.

Beneath the fascia, the plate-glass shopfront is interrupted by two lobby entrances. Each lobby has a mosaic floor bearing the name 'R.P. WHEADON & SON Ltd'. This name is repeated in the etched glass of the entrance doors, which are of timber with bronze kick plates. The soffits of the lobbies are panelled. The windows have low granite risers incorporating rectangular vents with a lozenge pattern. The panes of glass are separated by colonettes with cast-iron openwork spandrels. The doors backing the window displays are set with mirror glass, above which hammered glass panels borrow light for the interior of the shop. The narrow bay to the extreme right of the shopfront may have originally been a doorway, perhaps to provide access for staff working in the workshops on the first floor.

To the left of the door to No 19 is a one-over-one-pane sash window, and to the far left is a low 20th-century three-light plate-glass showcase obscuring the lower part of a wide recessed arch. The left (east) return is limestone rubble to the ground floor with brick above; there is a round-headed casement with small panes in the gable, and a lead hopper-head to the downpipe of the parapet gutter (there is another to the front inside right). The rubble stone and the position of the chimneys may indicate an earlier single-storey building.

There have been additions to the rear of No 21 which date mostly from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and were added to allow the business to expand. No 19 has been extended to the rear in the late 19th century with a full-height canted bay; there are also two single-storey extensions to the house which are modern and not of interest.

Interior

R A Dyer (No 21) largely retains its historical shop layout as well as the survival of important shop fittings characteristic of late 19th and early 20th-century shops. The ground floor is structurally divided into three bays. The right-hand bay (men's outfitting) is divided from the others by a solid wall pierced by two doorways, while the central and left-hand bays have been knocked together, with the former party wall replaced by encased cast-iron columns.

Fittings include mahogany counters with solid tops, panelled fronts and either drawers or shelves to the backs; glass-fronted and glass-topped display counters of the 1920s or 1930s; matchboard or tongue-and-groove panelling to some of the walls; wall shelves and drawers; early 20th-century free-standing cabinets; and an enclosed cash desk with a wooden change drawer and a safe. Towards the rear of the shop is a half-glazed office.

There are two staircases: one for staff and one for customers. The upper floor retains its plan form, with rooms including the former millinery department to the rear; former workshops and children's department; fitting rooms and toilets. The rear showroom retains large mahogany numbered hat drawers and wall-mounted mirrors. A half-glazed door is etched with the word 'SHOWROOM'.

The original room arrangement to No 19 appears to be largely intact and a number of historic features survive, including its staircase which has turned newel posts and stick balusters, panelled doors, moulded architraves, cornicing, and first-floor fireplaces of late 18th and 19th-century date; those to the ground floor have been replaced. At attic level the house has a flying freehold over the adjacent shop premises.

Subsidiary Features

Attached to a wall projecting forward from the left (north-east) corner of No 19 is a Ham Hill stone gate pier, one of a pair to double gates giving rear access to the house; these have plinths, moulded cornices and shallow pyramidal tops. In the rear (south) garden of No 19 is a detached outbuilding, formerly stables, which is now used for storage. It is built of uncoursed stone rubble with a pantile roof. The interior retains its stall partitions.

Historical Context

In 1870 R P Wheadon established a draper's shop in Ilminster. The building (Nos 19-21 Silver Street) in which the shop is located appears to have originally been two separate houses dating largely from the late 18th century. No 19 remains in use as a dwelling, while the shop occupies No 21. When it was founded, R P Wheadon & Son occupied only 180 square feet but, by the time of the company's Golden Jubilee in the 1920s, the shop had grown considerably, expanding into rear additions.

In 1937 R A Dyer purchased both the business and the adjoining house (Nos 19-21). In 1961 the neighbouring property, No 23 Silver Street (listed at Grade II) was purchased and was incorporated into the shop premises, becoming the furniture department. Both shops (Nos 21 and 23) were sold in the late 20th or early 21st century and are now separately occupied, although the shopfront of No 21 continues to bear the name 'R.A. Dyer'.

This property is designated at Grade II* as a rare survival of a late Victorian and Edwardian commercial premises with a good early 20th-century shopfront. It features a remarkably complete and virtually unaltered interior of around 1910 which retains an extraordinary array of fittings: counters, display cases, shelving and cash booth. No 19 is a carefully planned design of pre-1840 date, with those elements which contribute to its special character and appearance being clearly identifiable. The property characterises a developed commercial premises which reflects the growth of department stores in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.