Description

BIDEFORD

SS4526 BUTTGARDEN STREET
842-1/6/63 (West side)
No.15
Silvester House

GV II

House with shop. Early C20. Solid rendered front. Slated roof
with pierced, crested red ridge-tiles.
2 and-a-half storeys, the half-storey partly in the
roof-space; one-window range. Ground storey has original shop
front with flanking pilasters, these carrying tall bracketed
blocks with the number of the house inset at the top. Between
the blocks runs a glazed fascia, inscribed in gilt letters T.
L. HAMLYN & SON: above is a moulded cornice with floral iron
cresting. Plain display window, canted inwards at left-hand
end to accommodate the shop door, above which is written in
gilt letters SIGN WRITERS. GILDERS.
House-door to left is half-glazed with a solid moulded panel
at the bottom. Fanlight has the name SILVESTER HOUSE in gilt
letters, enclosed by a gilt border with red, green, and black
flowers. Left reveal in front of door carries a large painting
in Art Nouveau style of a woman in a long, off-the-shoulder
dress wandering in the countryside; beneath it is a quotation
from Tennyson, 'Then flush'd her cheek with rosy light, She
glanced across the plain'. The painting is signed BERT HAMLYN
and dated 1912. The floor below it is covered with coloured,
patterned mosaic and bears the name HAMLYN.
Second storey flanked by panelled pilaster-strips with scrolls
at the top, these supporting a cornice which extends across
the whole front. In the centre a canted bay window with shaped
base; wooden casements, the transom-lights with coloured
glass. The sills and transoms are continued to meet the
pilasters. Third or half-storey has raised quoins. At the top
a prominent eaves-cornice on large, multiple, shaped brackets,
this being broken in the centre by a tall dormer-gable with
projecting eaves and bargeboards. Dormer has 2-light casement
window with transom-light containing coloured glass; mock
timber-framing on face of gable above.
INTERIOR: shop has original decorated panelling. Iron
chimneypieces with inner surround of coloured tiles. Ceiling
at the front, apparently with coloured paper decoration;
patterned ceiling of plaster or papier-mache at rear. Upper
storeys not inspected.

Listing NGR: SS4529826394

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26496644

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide