10, 12 To 14, Upper High Street And Wall To Left Of No. 10

A range of four houses, dating from the late 18th or early 19th century, is located on Upper High Street in Taunton. Numbers 13 and 14 have been converted into a restaurant. The houses are primarily brick, with numbers 12 to 14 having been painted. They have clay tile hipped roofs, with numbers 10, 12, and 13 concealed behind parapets, and number 14 having a half-hipped roof. Brick stacks are located on the side and axial elevations.

The houses retain original plans, with number 10 being three bays and including a carriageway through the right-hand bay; number 11 is not included.

The north front is arranged with three, one, one, two, and two bays respectively. Number 10 has three bays, featuring tall twelve-pane sashes on the first floor with a continuous cill, nine-pane sashes on the second floor with a central blank space, and flat rubbed brick arches above. The ground floor has a sixteen-pane sash to the left, a carriageway to the right with a rubbed brick elliptical arch, and a doorway in the adjacent wall with a pilastered doorcase, open pediment, semi-circular fanlight with radiating glazing bars, and a fielded six-panel door. Number 12 has one bay, with a four-pane sash window on the ground floor, a canted first floor bay, and a sixteen-pane sash on the second floor. It also features a pilastered doorcase with a pediment and a fielded six-panel door. Number 13 has three bays, with tall twelve-pane sashes on the first floor, nine-pane sashes on the second floor, a later 19th-century pilastered shop window, and a pilastered doorway with open pediment, semi-circular fanlight with intersecting glazing bars, and a 20th-century panelled door. Number 14, on the right, is two bays high and features tall twelve-pane sashes on the first floor. The ground floor has a tripartite sash with an entablature and a pilastered doorcase with an open pediment, semi-circular fanlight with radiating tracery, and a six-panel door. The rear elevation has various sashes, some with glazing bars and some replacements, along with 19th and 20th-century rear wings.

The interior of numbers 13 and 14, now combined as one property and housing a restaurant on the ground floor, was inspected. The joinery has largely been replaced, with the exception of the staircase balustrade from the first to the second floor, which features a moulded handrail rising to turned column newels, although the balusters have been replaced. The roof structure of number 14 has been mostly rebuilt.

The range of four houses contributes to the group and townscape value of the centre of Taunton.