20, Chamberlain Street

WELLS

ST5445 CHAMBERLAIN STREET 662-1/7/58 (North side) 12/11/53 No.20

GV II

Former house, now offices, in row. Late C17 or early C18, refronted mid C19. Rendered with false ashlar jointing, stone dressing, slate roof; rear wing in rubble with pantile roof. PLAN: asymmetrical front range with through passage flanked by single rooms, and staircase to rear right; to the rear, right, is a long gabled wing in two sections, with coped verge at halfway point. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 5 bays. Plain sash windows in plain reveals, at first floor with exposed sash boxes. Entrance in central bay, a 6-panel door in stone surround having Doric pilaster, console brackets and pediment hood. Footscraper to right. The steep roof has a coped verge to the right, and there are brick stacks to each gable. The wing includes a wide 2-light flat-roofed dormer with some early leading, and good early C18 12-pane sashes. INTERIOR: there are early doors of various kinds, including 4 and 6-panel fielded, some plank, and one wide plank door with angle hinges, under a splat grille, below the stair landing, also panelled cupboard doors. Windows are shuttered, with panels below the sills. Some ground floor stone flooring remains. There are no extant fireplaces or cornices. The stair, approached through a 2-arched opening is a dog-leg with chinoiserie balustrade to the upper flight. The main roof has very regular principals, possibly C19 replacements, but the purlin is of rough scantling. The rear wing has a narrow-span roof without collars or ties, but with very deep square purlins. The bland refenestration of the front of the building conceals an unsuspected earlier fabric.

Listing NGR: ST5480845848