Legion House And Attached Wall To Right

BRIDGWATER

ST2937SE CASTLE STREET 736-1/10/29 (South side) 24/03/50 No.15 Legion House and attached wall to right

GV II*

House, now British Legion premises. Mid C18. Flemish-bond brick, stone moulded coping to the high parapet (rebuilt), doorcase, stepped keystones and bracketed cills; double Roman tile roof, hipped to the rear wing, with brick stacks to gable ends. Double-depth plan with rear wing to right and C20 single-storey rear extensions. 2 storeys with attic; symmetrical 5-window range. Dentilled brick cornice beneath parapet. Shallow segmental gauged brick arches to 6/6-pane sash windows with some crown glass, and brick platbands between floors and below ground-floor windows. To left is a segmental brick arch to the basement opening. Semicircular steps up to 8-panel door, the top 2 panels are quadrants with small triangular panel between and large bronze knocker; the doorcase has a moulded cornice on consoles over an eared and moulded architrave with a keystone. The right return has flat gauged brick arches to late C19 horned 2/2-pane sash windows to left and a gauged brick semicircular-arched stair window to right. To first floor of rear wing is a mid C19 canted bay with a large 6/6-pane sash window and some crown glass, to right are late C19 paired fixed windows with semicircular stone arches and bracketed cills to each. INTERIOR: the stairs above the first floor have a moulded rail and stick balusters and two c1770 plaster panels depicting Roman life. Room to left of first floor has C19 cornice, skirting boards and a 4-panel door. Room to first floor of rear wing has an eared architrave to door with 6 raised and fielded panels, large C19 elliptical-arched recess to rear, cornice with an ornamental frieze on the ceiling, painted slate fireplace, foliate plaster ceiling rose and the architrave to canted bay window has added classical detail. The front door has plain unmoulded panels to rear and a large L hinge and lock. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached by a vertical joint to right of facade, a high Flemish-bond brick wall reaches just above the platband. To centre a stone lintel to blocked door, to left a flat gauged brick arch to blocked window, probably openings to former conservatory to rear. The right wall continues into Queen Street, the forward part rebuilt. The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an important group, unusual for their scale and ambition outside London's West End. (VCH: Somerset: London: 1992-: 200).

Listing NGR: ST2991637143