Description

WORCESTER

SO8554SW EDGAR STREET
620-1/20/220 (South side)
22/05/54 No.3

GV II*

House. Dated 1732 on central first-floor keystone, with later
additions and alterations; on the site of an earlier dwelling
and incorporating earlier materials. William Stephens,
builder.
PLAN: single depth with central hallway and stairs behind left
room; short rear wing to right and the angle later infilled.
Reddish-orange brick in Flemish bond, stone sills, cornice and
keystones; plain tile roof, rear left brick stack with
oversailing course and pots. 3 storeys plus attic, 5
first-floor windows. First and second floors have 6/6 sashes;
ground floor has 2 pairs of 6/6 sashes; all in near-flush
frames, with sills and under flat arches of rubbed brick. The
keystones to ground and first floor mainly have incised
moulding and cornices, except that to centre, first floor has
date cartouche; second floor windows have fluted scroll
keystones, that to centre has foliate decoration. Central
entracne a 6-raised-and-fielded-panel door with divided
overlight in fluted doorcase, frieze with lion masks and
cornice; lion-head knocker. Moulded brick cornice; parapet
with brick copings. Box dormer partly concealed behind
parapet. Lead hopper and fallpipe.
INTERIOR: closed string, dogleg staircase with rod-on-vase
balusters. First-floor drawing room has painted
bolection-moulded panelling and buffets flanking fireplace, 2
round-arched niches with shelves, one with cupboard doors;
deeply moulded cornice. Panelled shutters. 2- and 4-
raised-and-fielded-panel doors. Late C17 panelling to ground
floor and bolection-moulded fireplaces (all said to have been
brought from elsewhere). Attic has exposed purlins, plank door
and interrupted tie beam.
HISTORICAL NOTE: a 99-year lease was made on 9 June 1732 by St
Michael's parish to William Stephens, the terms of which
included 'the Liberty of pulling downe the present Messuage
(it being very Old and much out of repair) in Order to build a
good new substantiall and strong house in the Room thereof and
to work up and make use of All Old atterialls thereof in
Building the said New house intended to be built as aforesaid
... within the space of Eighteen Months'. (HWCRO:BA 4426/27.
850 Worc St Andrew). The ground-floor windows have been
altered, pairing them up to reduce the total number of windows
on the front
elevation from 14 to 12, presumably to reduce the Window Tax.
NMR photographs. A fine example of Worcester's Georgian
domestic architecture. Nos 2-16 (consecutive) Edgar Street
(qqv) form a significant group, together with Nos 28-34 (even)
Sidbury; No.12 College Precincts; Tower House, No.1 Severn
Street; and Edgar Tower, College Green (qqv). Edgar Street (in
which all the buildings are listed) is a fine example of a
Georgian street and it forms part of the setting for the
Cathedral (qv).
(Molyneux N: Vernacular Architecture Group Spring Conference
Worcestershire: 1995-: 2.2).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548130

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

• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990