Survey Data
Reg No
50010702
Previous Name
Legg Brothers
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Office
Date
1790 - 1830
Coordinates
315954, 235227
Date Recorded
21/12/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay two-storey gable-fronted house, built c.1810, now in use as community offices. Pitched slate roof, having timber bargeboards and cast-iron downpipe at junction to north. Ruled-and-lined rendered painted walls. Projecting plinth course with vent brick. Raised diamond-shaped panel having moulded render surround to first floor of west elevation with lettering "ESTd. 1861" in raised lettering. Rectangular panel between floors having moulded render surround and lettering "LEGG BROS.". Similar panel to south elevation lacking lettering. Square-headed window and door openings, having replacement timber frames, painted moulded render surrounds and granite sills. Rolled shuttering to ground floor front openings. Small yard to south, enclosed to front by modern steel gates.
Appraisal
No. 7 Hill Street is a remnant of the former eighteenth and nineteenth-century character of this street. It is flanked to the north by a four-storey late Georgian terrace, now converted into apartments. To the south, a modern late twentieth-century five-storey apartment block dwarfs this building. It is likely to have been built with the creation of Temple Street Lower, which opened up a route from Summer Hill (now Parnell Street) to Gardiner Place and Great Denmark Street. Located close to the old Saint George's Church, built in 1714 by landlord Sir John Eccles, the street was newly created to the west of the old church at the late eighteenth century. The new church was designed by Francis Johnson and was built further uphill on Temple Street Upper and consecrated in 1814. It is likely that no. 7 Temple Street Lower was built by this time. The building was clearly re-rendered and possibly changed use in 1861. In 1887 Temple Street Lower was renamed Hill Street to regenerate the street which had acquired a bad reputation.