Description

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE HIGH STREET
829-1/9/129 (South side)
08/05/50 No.87
Ware Library
(Formerly Listed as:
HIGH STREET
No.87)

II*

Former dwelling, now public library. Mid and late C18, with
C19 and C20 alterations. Modern extensions at west side and
rear, 1979, for Ware Library are not of special interest.
First and second floors plum-red brick, with cherry-red
dressings, above stuccoed ground floor, painted cill band to
first floor windows. Stone modillioned cornice, and brick
parapet, with stone coping. Hipped old tiled roof of 3
parallel ridges behind parapet on main building. Parapet
ramped upwards at sides to join chimneys on flank walls, red
brick with projecting band and cap, with 4 pots.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys. First floor 5 bays with 5 recessed sash
windows with glazing bars, in painted reveals, under rubbed
flat arches. Ground floor has mid C19 stucco facing, with
heavy rustication and moulded cornice, with central porch,
having paired Roman Ionic columns and Roman Ionic entablature.
Outer ground floor windows flanked by Roman Ionic columns
below entablatures. Columns of Portland stone possibly late
C19 substitutes for stucco originals. 4 sash windows,
recessed, with glazing bars, central door and fanlight in
plain surround, bordered by archivolt.
Rear elevation has early C19 cast-iron loggia, with pierced
supports raising conservatory to first floor level. Rear door,
6 flush panels, with square fanlight and ogee gothic tracery,
recessed in fluted surround. Rear French casement windows to
main left hand room, with narrow glazed margins and fixed
upper lights, with fluted surround. French casements at first
floor level, some with decorative painted glass margins with
vine pattern, lead into conservatory, which has small paned
glazing, fixed light on west, and 3 sliding sashes on south.
Sash windows on second floor above almost flush set, with
moulded surrounds and exposed boxes, under rubbed flat arches.
Lead rainwater head on SE corner of 3 storey building dated
1827 with initials EC, Edward Chuck. 2 storey rear outshoot
constructed as kitchen, red brick with machine tiled roof.
Ground floor has triple light sash window, with glazing bars,
and lantern case in upper part of left hand sash.
INTERIOR: the building has features from late C18 to mid C19.
The ground floor right hand room has C18 fielded and raised
panelling, an elaborate wood cornice with a dentil frieze, and
a door surround with moulded architraves, a pulvinated frieze,
with dentils and a moulded cornice. The entrance hall has mid
C19 segmental quadripartite groined plaster vaulting, with
paired consoles at springing line. Doors have architraves
removed, and reeded plaster surrounds. The ground floor left
hand room has a marble fireplace c1840, a plaster cornice with
a honeysuckle frieze and an egg and dart ovolo moulding. A
dog-leg newel staircase leads to the first and second floors.
Late C18, open string construction, with Tuscan column newels
and slender column on vase balusters, 3 to each tread. Moulded
ramped handrail. First half landing has window with leaded
painted glass, late C19, in style of Morris and Co. First
floor front left hand room has mid C19 richly decorated
plaster cornice with acanthus frieze and vine pattern. Ceiling
rose with vine leaves in roundel. First floor front right hand
room has C18 chimneypiece with dentil cornice forming
mantelshelf. Rear room, a lavatory, has a dado with raised
panels and bolection mouldings, and a sash window with
quadrant glazing bars of mid C18 pattern.
HISTORICAL NOTE: building stands on the historic site of The
Crown Inn, demolished c1765 at which time it housed the Great
Bed. The present building represents a fine example of the
house of a prosperous maltster, embellished with fashionable
decorative features over the years. It was the home of Edward
Chuck, and Henry Page, two of the town's most prosperous
maltsters. Page's maltings survive in much altered form to the
rear, no longer of special interest.
(Edwards E and Perman D: Ware's Past In Pictures: Ware: 1991-:
70; Hunt EM: The History of Ware: Hertford: 1986-1946: 111,
164; Smith JT: Hertfordshire Houses. Selective Inventory:
London: 1993-: 199; Perman D: Ware UD. List of buildings of
special arch or historic interest: 1993-: 36; Ware Tithe Map:
1845-; Ware 25" to 1 Mile. Surveyed by the Ordnance Survey
Department: 1851-).

Listing NGR: TL3565214353

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554041

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living