Description

WORCESTER

SO8554NW MEALCHEAPEN STREET
620-1/17/434 (South side)
22/05/54 No.9
and Reindeer Court
Formerly Listed as:
MEALCHEAPEN STREET
(South side)
Reindeer Inn)

GV II

Shop and house with stable to rear, then inn, now shops. Mid
C16 origins with later additions and alterations including
rebuilding to frontage and rear block c1686, additions c1700
and renovations c1980s.
Stucco over brick to front facade with pinkish-brown brick to
facades of inner court; former stable has timber-frame; roof to
front part concealed, rear ranges have plain tile roofs.
U-plan.
EXTERIOR to Mealcheapen Street: 3 storeys, 5 first-floor
windows. first and second floors have 6/6 sashes in plain
reveals and with sills. Ovolo-moulded cornice and coped
parapet. Ground floor has two outer shop fronts and central
carriage entrance. Shop fronts alike: outer pilasters and (at
right) pilasters to door, continuous frieze with triglyphs and
metopes, guttae to cornice. Plate-glass windows and 1/1 sash to
right of carriage arch, with part-glazed door and overlight at
right. Within arch at left a panelled light with etched glass
and at right are double part-glazed doors, the lower panels
flush beaded, and cambered light over with radial glazing bars
in tooled surround. Rear ranges retain 6/6 and 8/8 sashes,
mainly with cambered heads, some in near-flush frames,
otherwise with plain reveals.
INTERIOR: closed string staircase at rear right c1680s has
bulbous rod on vase balusters and shaped handrail.
HISTORICAL NOTE: land occupied by The Reindeer Inn was
sequestered from the Earl of Warwick and in 1555 was granted to
the Corporation of the City of Worcester. In 1560 the property
on this site was rented to Thomas Tolly, shoemaker, behind this
house was a stable, still extant though with rebuilding; Hughes
describes this as 'and important and unique example of such a
town stable.' The first reference to an inn was in 1653,
landlord John Houghton and wife Alice who rebuilt the frontage
and rear block c1686 when the stable was also repaired. Further
rebuilding and additions for the Swift
family c1700 and later. Mealcheapen Street flourished
particularly in the C16 and early C17, predominantly as a
retail outlet; Hughes: 'it was the proximity to the Cornmarket
that gave the street much of its prosperity and led to the
establishment of a number of large inns.'
(Hughes P: Buildings and the Building Trade in Worcester
1540-1650: PhD thesis: 1990-: 199-200).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26669423

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

• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)