Description

811/3/179 NORTHGATE STREET
10-JAN-53 (East side)
4

GV II
No.4 Northgate Street is a three-bay house of two storeys and attic, dating from the late C17 with some alterations to the main elevation in the late C18.

PLAN: The building is single-depth on plan, with a slightly irregular projecting rear wing to the north.

MATERIALS: The house is built from red brick laid in Flemish bond, and has a plain clay tile roof.

EXTERIOR: The main elevation, of three bays and two storeys with attic, is set on a slightly projecting plinth, has a string course between the first and second floors and a moulded cornice at the eaves, and a plain pilaster to the north at the junction with number 6. There is a central entrance doorway with a six flush panel door, in an opening with a semi-circular fanlight, under a projecting hood carried on console brackets. The windows are six-over-six sashes, set under rubbed brick flat arches with slightly projecting, painted keystones. The roof has two gabled dormers, each set with side hung timber casements.

The house has group value with the other buildings along both the east and west sides of Northgate Street.

HISTORY: The centre of Warwick was radically altered by a fire on 5 September 1694; this began in the area to the west of Northgate Street, but spread to the area after householders moved valuable furniture, already smouldering, to St Mary's Church, set at the south end of Northgate Street. The church itself caught fire and then the flames rapidly spread along Northgate Street, destroying all the houses on the east side, and damaging those to the west. Some walls towards the rear of the houses on the east side appear to have survived the fire. The houses were rebuilt in the period immediately following the fire, before the end of the C17, though with some alterations later in the C18, including much of the detailing to their main elevations. The houses were evidently substantial private dwellings, but by 1896, trade directories show that several were in commercial or professional use, and some in use as lodgings, though a number were still private family dwellings. By this date, number 16 was an office for Warwickshire County Council, and in the early C21, the houses were all in use as offices for the departments of the district council, together with the later C20 offices built to the rear of the Northgate Street houses.

SOURCES: Victoria County History: A History of the County of Warwick : Volume 8: The City of Coventry and Borough of Warwick (1969) 427-34
Nikolaus Pevsner and Alexandra Wedgwood: The Buildings of England: Warwickshire (2003) 461
Fire records at Warwickshire County Record Office

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION:
4 Northgate Street is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* A largely intact house of some architectural pretension dating substantially from the late C17
* The later C18 alterations to the main elevation are of good quality and enhance the building's special architectural interest
* Group value with the adjacent listed buildings at 2 and 6-22 Northgate Street, Northgate House and the listed buildings to the west side of Northgate Street

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26480306

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)