25, Market Place

WELLS

ST5445 MARKET PLACE 662-1/7/161 (North side) 12/11/53 No.25 (Formerly Listed as: MARKET PLACE (North side) Nos.3-25 (Odd))

GV II*

House with shop, now offices. c1453, built as part of the "New Works" by Bishop Bekynton, modified in C18. Doulting ashlar stonework with rendered and lined parapet, Welsh slate roof, brick chimney stack. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, single wide bay. plinth, trace of string moulding over door (on rake) and also below parapet, pierced by second-floor windows. Shallow canted bay window through full height, the ground and first floors incorporating 12+12+12 pane sashes, and the second floor 6+6+6 pane units. Doorway to left, up three steps, with 6-panel door in deep recess and a 3-pane rectangular fanlight over, set under simple timber hood on 4 cantilevered brackets. At second floor level, against the boundary of No.23 (qv) a fragment of a small cinquefoil-cusped pointed arched blocked window. On the right of the bay, the parapet is brought forward on a corbel to an angled return with Penniless Porch (qv ) which it adjoins. Stack to right on coped gable. INTERIOR: ground floor has early beams with deep chamfer and C18 timber cornice, the centre section having a coved ceiling of the early C19; rear rooms have C18 cornices. Early C19 staircase to first floor, with late C18 doors, and corniced ceilings to rear rooms; front room has panelled ceiling and early C17 panelling, with safe cupboard. Second floor has C18 doors and doorcases, with some ceiling cornices, and plaster vaulting above the stair well. HISTORICAL NOTE: this is the only one of the whole of Bekynton's 'Nova Opera' terrace to have retained the ashlar front wall unplastered, with a fragment of original window. Part of an outstanding late medieval planned urban group. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 328).

Listing NGR: ST5505145816