20 Vaughan St / Bridge St

Llanelly House and adjoining properties at 20, 22 and 24 Vaughan Street and Bridge Street (South side)

This is a Grade I listed building of outstanding historical and architectural importance, comprising a major early 18th-century house with its former rear wing.

The Main Facade

The principal frontage to Vaughan Street is constructed of stucco over rubble stone, with a low-pitched slate roof concealed behind a parapet. The building rises three storeys across seven bays, with three forward breaks arranged in a 1-2-1-2-1 pattern. The upper floors remain very little altered, while the ground floor has undergone considerable rearrangement.

Three rendered stacks are positioned to the left and centre (formerly a fourth to the right), and evidence survives of their original construction in red brick with arcading. The upper floors are fenestrated with small-paned long sashes with exposed boxes, some of which remain original. The first floor displays 18-pane sashes, while the top floor carries 24-pane sashes with oblong blank panels above. The parapet is finished with painted stone moulded coping supporting seven ornate stone urns, the two centre urns being particularly elaborate. The three projected bays feature very ornate painted timber carved modillion cornices positioned below the second floor sills.

The ground floor, though substantially altered, retains a stone string course surviving over the first three bays. The openings remain in their original positions. The first two bays have 20th-century plate glass windows set in moulded stucco surrounds, probably dating from the 19th century. The third bay contains a modern door with overlight in plain timber architrave. The centre bay retains an off-centre 18-pane sash, to the right of which is a tall door with fielded panels and glazed top panel, not aligned with the window above. The last two bays contain a late 19th-century glass shopwindow of two panes with slim column shafts. All four of these bays are framed within a late 19th-century applied shopfront featuring fluted Corinthian pilasters at each end and a long entablature. The facade maintains an even line across these four bays, though the recession of the fifth and sixth bays has been lost through alteration. The door, probably repositioned from its original centre bay location, may be original, although its top panel has been altered.

The facade is decorated with two symmetrically placed lead downpipes of exceptional quality, each fitted with a rainwater head, fixing brackets and associated pipework. The left pipe survives complete, while the right pipe is missing only its ground floor section. A date of 1714 appears beneath the rainwater heads.

The West End Wall

The west end wall features a parapet that ramps upward to the centre, with corner urns. Two 15-pane upper windows are positioned symmetrically, one matching the pattern of the first floor left window on the main front, the other blank. The ground floor has been substantially altered by a late 19th-century shopfront matching that on the main frontage. A matching lead rainwater head and pipe survives.

The Rear Wing

Immediately adjacent, at Nos 20 and 22 Vaughan Street, stands the former rear wing of Llanelly House. This is a two-storey stuccoed structure with a slate roof, projecting slightly forward of the main house end wall. It features a brick stack to the south and a brick stack on the rear east roof. Four large original 15-pane sashes with stone sills light the first floor. The ground floor has been wholly altered (circa 1980) by a double shopfront with polished black and grey stone cladding and metal-framed windows.

The Interior

Despite years of neglect, Llanelly House retains very extensive areas of original panelling, extending over almost the entire first floor, including the Vaughan Street wing. The panels are tall and fielded, set over moulded dado rails, with further fielded panelling to window seats throughout. Simple moulded cornices enhance the scheme.

The main first floor front room, spanning four bays, retains complete panelling, though the fireplaces date from the later 18th century. The south fireplace wall features fluted pilasters. The east end of the first floor and second floor of the main house were not inspected at the time of recording, but the first floor corridor displays three fine panelled and moulded arches with fluted pilasters, panelled spandrels, keystones and cornices.

The wide stair hall, built within the angle behind the two ranges, features a rich modillion cornice in timber and plaster. A second floor gallery retains original bobbin-turned balusters, although the open-well main stair itself appears to be of later date. A fine moulded and panelled arched doorway on the east side of the half-landing appears original, as does a similarly detailed but narrow viewing archway on the west wall, now blanked off behind bobbin-turned balustrade.

The Vaughan Street wing contains one small panelled room with one window to Vaughan Street and three painted grisaille over-door panels. Adjacent is a larger room to the south, lit by two windows and fully panelled. The original south wall fireplace features a pulvinated laurel-leaf frieze. Panelled doors open to a recessed cupboard to the right. A later staircase in the south east angle descends to the ground floor, with a stair to the attic positioned behind the smaller panelled room (not inspected).

The ground floors are more fragmentary in survival. In the main range, the left room appears to retain most of its panelling, though boxed in behind modern materials. A painted overmantel is revealed, depicting an idealised coastal scene with classical temples and a British fleet. A moulded plaster ceiling was accidentally destroyed in 1990. The passage in the third bay is plain, while the remaining four bays—presumably the original entrance hall and large north west room—now form a single shop. Original panelling survives on the east wall, with one moulded and panelled archway on the east wall adjoining a similar south wall archway through to the stair hall. Ceilings are divided into panels by plastered beams, some probably original, with simple decoration to the panels. Further panelling and a large fireplace survive in No. 22 Vaughan Street, though boxed in.

The building requires further historic and archaeological investigation, but appears internally to preserve to a remarkable extent the original fittings of a major early 18th-century house.