Survey Data
Reg No
50910049
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Office
Date
1760 - 1830
Coordinates
315747, 233776
Date Recorded
02/10/2015
Date Updated
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Description
Terraced two-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1765 as pair with No. 22. Three-pile pitched roof, hipped to south, with glazed lantern to central pile, rendered chimneystacks with copings and lipped yellow clay pots to north party wall, concealed behind parapet with granite coping, and with concealed gutters with cast-iron hopper and downpipe breaking through to north. Ruled-and-lined rendered walling, with painted granite plinth course over smooth rendered walls to basement. Square-headed window openings, diminishing to upper floors, with painted granite sills, plain reveals and ruled voussoirs. Windows are timber sliding sash, with convex horns to top floor, lacking horns elsewhere, replacement six-over-three pane frames to basement, three-over-three pane to top floor, six-over-six pane elsewhere. Tripartite windows of c. 1820 noted to rear (Craig,1999). Round-headed doorcase of c. 1820, with moulded surround, engaged Doric columns on plinth stops, fluted frieze with rosette motifs, replacement cobweb fanlight, and timber panelled door with painted granite step. Granite entrance platform with cast-iron boot-scrape and five nosed steps to street, flanked by cast-iron railings with decorative corner posts on moulded granite plinth, enclosing basement area to north. Square-headed recent timber door located beneath entrance platform accessed via steel steps from street level.
Appraisal
This relatively grand mid-eighteenth-century house, one of a pair, has a dominant presence on a streetscape that is characterized by Georgian houses of more modest proportions. Cantilevered stone staircase and early nineteenth century plasterwork and joinery to interior. (Craig, 1999) The restrained yet well-balanced façade is enlivened by its neo-Classical Doric doorcase and, despite some alterations and loss of historic fabric, it constitutes an important feature in the street and the wider district. Casey (2005) suggests ironsmith Timothy Turner as the builder. Shaw's Directory (1850) list the Pim Brothers, a Quaker merchant family, as occupants of Nos. 22 and 23. South William Street was opened about 1676 by William Williams, after whom the street is named, and had become a popular residential area by the early Georgian era. Extensively rebuilt during the mid-to late eighteenth century and dominated by a mixture of modest terraced houses and more audacious mansions, the majority have since been converted to commercial use.