Survey Data
Reg No
50020174
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Office
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1830 - 1850
Coordinates
315739, 234149
Date Recorded
10/03/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached former pair of two-bay three-storey former houses over basement, built c.1840, with recent shopfronts to front (east) elevation. Now in commercial use. M-profile pitched roof, set perpendicular to street, hidden behind brick parapet with masonry coping. Painted brick, laid in English garden wall bond, to walls. Square-headed window openings having masonry sills and timber casement windows. Granite kerbing to front, limestone setts to road to east.
Appraisal
Crown Alley, formerly a narrow, irregular passageway connecting Temple Bar and Dame Street, was laid out in the early eighteenth century. Following the construction of the Ha’penny Bridge and Merchants’ Hall the Wide Street Commissioners took the opportunity to widen and improve the passageway. From the mid-nineteenth century the alley was characterised by warehouses and Griffith’s Primary Valuation indicates this former pair of houses was occupied by an office, engine house and yard. The irregularly placed first floor windows, reflecting the interior plan, add visual interest to the brick façade.