Description

MALMESBURY

ST9386 KINGS WALL
758-1/3/234 (South West side)
18/01/49 Nos.34 AND 38
Kings House and attached garden and
front terrace walls and railings
(Formerly Listed as:
KINGS WALL
(West side)
Nos.34-38
King Athelstan's House)

GV II*

House and attached W and rear wings, now 2 houses. c1705,
extended to W early C18. Limestone rubble and dressings with
ashlar and brick gable and rear external stacks and stone
slate roof. Main elevation provincial Baroque style.
PLAN: L-shaped plan with single-depth plan main house and
left-hand wing, with rear right-hand service wing.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, attic and basement; 3-window range with
5-window side wing. Rusticated quoins, strings to each floor,
deep cornice, a fine balustrade with panelled dies to the main
house and parapet to the side wing. Main house has a good
doorway with cushion brackets to a shell hood, a late C20 door
with 6 raised panels and rectangular overlight. Raised, keyed
surrounds with segmental-arched heads to outer first- and
second-floor windows and central round-arched first-floor
window, to probably original 6/6-pane sashes with thick
glazing bars; 2 dormers behind balustrade, which has a central
panel with Malmesbury arms; right-hand 1-window return has
mullion windows. W wing has a left-hand doorway with
half-glazed door, cross windows with cyma mouldings and
relieving arches to leaded metal casements with stay bars and
original fittings, and a central segmental-arched heraldic
panel; coped left-hand gable with former stack and front
balustrade.
The rear 3-window elevation has cross windows in the left-hand
gable and at each end of the side wing, a large right of
centre external stack, with a smaller lateral stack to the
left above a range of blocked cross windows.
INTERIOR: details include a collar truss roof with lap
dovetail collars and threaded ridge. A good right-hand winder
stair with plank door to the attic, second-floor front room
with bolection-moulded fire surround and plank and muntin
panelling, good panelled first-floor front room including an
early C19 fire surround with fluted pilasters and entablature

with triglyphs and flanking shell-headed cupboards, the
left-hand one with concealed sliding door, and a dentil
cornice. Entrance stair hall remodelled early C19 with reeded
architraves and roundels, moulded beams, a left-hand rear
dogleg winder stair with stick balusters and column newels.
The W wing details include a right-hand rear stair well with a
mid C20 newel stair, and chamfered ceiling beams, central
first-floor room with fully-panelled sides and cornice and a
good fire surround with carved leafs, ground-floor room
beneath has panelling and plank and muntin screen; basement
has large bressumer to fireplace.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached rubble walls round front garden
and to full-width terrace in front of wing with wrought-iron
railings to right-hand steps.
HISTORICAL NOTE: probably built by Mr Thomas, Town Clerk to
the Old Corporation; the Town Arms with the Padenham and
Yeoman families being over the entrance facade.
An exceptionally fine and interesting early C18 town house,
the sash windows being very early examples and the cross
windows being used in the lesser status elevations.

Listing NGR: ST9327286977

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17544373

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

• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)