No 16 And Attached Wall To Left Return

BRIDGWATER

ST2937SE CASTLE STREET 736-1/10/30 (North side) 24/03/50 No.16 and attached wall to left return (Formerly Listed as: CASTLE STREET (North side) Nos.6-14 (Even) No.16)

GV I

House. 1723-8 for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. By Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, the Duke's London surveyors. Flemish-bond red and yellow brick, moulded stone cornice, architraves, cills and doorcase; double-Roman tile roof with brick stacks to gable ends. Double-depth plan with late C18 rear right wing. 3 storeys with cellar; symmetrical 5-window range. The cornice sweeps up to the left, there are no quoins or features on left return, implying that terrace was intended to continue. Segmental arches to cyma-moulded architraves, plain cills with moulded brackets and 6/6-pane sash windows with thin glazing bars. The doorcase has a similar architrave to the windows flanked by diagonally-set fluted pilasters supporting a triglyph frieze with patera and guttae below a moulded cornice, the door has a segmental-arched top and 6 late C18 beaded panels. To right is a segmental arch to the cellar opening. The rear has timber lintels and some crown glass to 6/6-pane sash windows with thin glazing bars. INTERIOR: the closed-string dogleg stairs to right of hall have a moulded handrail and turned balusters. Room to first-floor left has painted fire surround with carved consoles, jambs and lintel, a late C18 cast-iron grate with fine decoration of swags and female figures flanked by 4-panel cupboard doors each with a cornice, L hinges and a raised and fielded panel above. Room to first floor of rear wing has a dado rail and wooden Adam-style fire surround with moulded panels to the sides and swags and roundels below a moulded cornice. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached to rear left return is a rubblestone wall with occasional dressed slabs incorporated, approx 3m high and 18m long, which has brick jambs to former entrance to rear courtyard. The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an important group, unusual for their scale and ambition outside London's West End. (Buildings of England: 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: ST2990537194