22 Vaughan St / Bridge St

Llanelly House: 22 Vaughan Street and Bridge Street

A Grade I listed building comprising three connected structures on the south side of Bridge Street and Vaughan Street. The main house, Nos 2 and 4, together with the former rear wing (Nos 20 and 22 Vaughan Street), represents a major early 18th-century residence of exceptional historical and architectural importance.

The main facade is of stucco over rubble stone with a low-pitched slate roof behind a parapet. It extends across seven bays with three forward projections arranged in a 1-2-1-2-1 pattern. The upper floors remain very little altered. The ground floor has been considerably rearranged but retains important original features beneath later modifications.

The first and second floors contain small-paned long sashes with exposed boxes, some still original. The first floor has 18-pane sashes while the top floor carries 24-pane sashes, with oblong blank panels above. A painted stone moulded coping runs across the top with seven ornate stone urns, the centre pair being more elaborate. The three projected bays have very ornate painted timber carved modillion cornices below the second floor sills.

The ground floor is substantially altered. A stone string course survives over the first three bays. The first two bays have 20th-century plate glass windows in probably 19th-century moulded stucco surrounds. The third bay contains a modern door with overlight in plain timber architrave. The centre bay retains an off-centre 18-pane sash; to its right is a tall door with fielded panels and glazed top panel, not aligned with the window above. The final two bays feature a late 19th-century shopwindow of two panes with slim column shafts, framed within a late 19th-century applied shopfront of fluted Corinthian pilasters and entablature. The original recession of the fifth and sixth bays has been lost to these alterations. The door may originally have been located in the centre bay position and could be original, though its top panel has been altered.

The facade features two symmetrically placed lead downpipes with rainwater heads of exceptional quality. The left pipe is complete; the right survives except at ground floor level. A date of 1714 appears beneath the heads. The west end wall has a parapet ramped up to the centre, corner urns, two 15-pane upper windows (one matching the first floor left, one blank), and a ground floor late 19th-century shopfront matching the main front. A matching lead rainwater head and pipe is present.

The former rear wing (Nos 20 and 22 Vaughan Street) projects slightly forward of the main house end wall. It comprises two storeys, stuccoed with a slate roof. It features brick stacks to the south end and rear east roof. Four original 15-pane large sashes with stone sills light the first floor. The ground floor has been wholly altered by approximately 1980 with a double shopfront clad in polished black and grey stone and metal-framed windows.

Interior

Despite extensive neglect, Llanelly House retains very extensive areas of original panelling, extending over almost the entire first floor, including the Vaughan Street wing. The panelling comprises tall fielded panels over a moulded dado rail, with fielded panels below. Window seats throughout are similarly detailed. Simple moulded cornices are present throughout.

The main front room on the first floor, spanning four bays, retains complete panelling with later 18th-century fireplaces. The south fireplace wall features fluted pilasters. The first floor corridor has three fine panelled and moulded arches with fluted pilasters, panelled spandrels, keystones and cornices. A wide stair hall set in the angle behind the two ranges carries a rich modillion cornice in timber and plaster. A second floor gallery retains original bobbin-turned balusters. The open-well main stair appears to be of later date, though 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 a single window to Vaughan Street and three painted grisaille over-door panels. A larger room to the south, lit by two windows, is fully panelled with an original south wall fireplace featuring a pulvinated laurel-leaf frieze. Panelled doors to a recessed cupboard are present. A later staircase in the south east angle descends to the ground floor. Behind the smaller panelled room, a stair to the attic has not been inspected.

Ground floor survival is more fragmentary. In the main range, the left room retains most of its panelling, concealed behind modern boxing. A painted overmantel is visible, 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. 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, together 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 carrying probably original simple decoration. Further panelling and a large fireplace survive in No. 22 Vaughan Street, boxed in.

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