Building record 1195700000 - 29 & 30 WEST STREET

Grade II+. Town-house, possibly with shops to ground floor, now shop and dwelling. Probably late medieval, altered late C16, early C18, early C19 and C20. Timber-framed with render, plain-tiled roof with lead flat to front, brick ridge and end stacks. Original plan uncertain. 3-storey, 4-window range. 4-panel door to right with overlight, 6-panel door to far right leading to passageway, both under continuous dentilled cornice hood, which probably continues underneath C20 fascia to C20 plate-glass shop frontage which occupies rest of ground floor. 16-pane sash windows to 1st floor and 12-pane sashes to 2nd floor all with moulded wood surrounds. Wood modillion eaves cornice. Front wall has been raised to conceal dormer windows of former 2 storeys and attic range. Full-height gabled wing to rear right of centre, possibly former stair turret flanked by later 2-storey extension, further single-storey extension with pyramidal roof encroaching on yard, and 2-storey wing to rear left. INTERIOR: boxed beams to ground floor, cellar and C19 chimneypieces and cast-iron grates to 1st floor. Rooms at top of main range have plaster barrel-vaulted ceilings which appear to have belonged to an Elizabethan long gallery divided by later partitions and interrupted by large early C18 or C17 stack near centre. Ceiling in attic rooms of No.30 clearly belonged originally to one room divided by later, thin partition, and is divided into rectangular panels by ribbed plaster bands with rosettes at intersections. Similar ribbed bands at cornice level on street side extending into what were originally large dormer windows. Barrel-vaulted ceiling continues in No.29 but without ornament. Plain plaster barrel-vaulted ceiling in wing to rear of main range, and at right-angles to it, may be ceiling of stair leading to former long gallery from ground and first floors. According to observations of owner during course of repairs when parts of render were renewed the timber frame has closely-spaced uprights probably representing close studding and ornament to render of 'cheeks' of former dormer windows concealed by raising of front wall and flat lead roof laid across dormers. Division into two shops with living accommodation above may have taken place as early as c1700 but had certainly taken place by early C19. Two shops made into one C20 (B1).
Buildings report dated May 1991 - Feb 1994 held at NMR (B2).
The Listed Building Assessment has identified that the Grade II* Listed 29 and 30 West Street is a multi-phase building, originating in the 16th century. Development plans have not been finalised but include the proposed renovation of the first and second floors of the Grade II* Listed Building into a single residential unit. The main proposed impacts are the insertion of a new kitchen and a new bathroom (B3).
The site visit concluded that 29-30 West Street originated as a single pile 16th-century stone-built house parallel to the street, with a central stack serving both front rooms. It is possible that the entrance on the street was immediately north of this stack, forming a lobby entry. If so, this would be an early example of this type of plan. The present street frontage is straight, dates from the early/mid-18th century and is assumed to be of brick, but is now all rendered. The shop fronts are late 19th century and further modified (they appear in plan in their present form in the 1881 OS mapping, Fig. 5). The fine fanlight over the present entrance has probably been reset or retained from the 18th-century entrance, but it is a late, neoclassical design and the façade is probably older (B4).