1885 - 58 High Street, Wells, Somerset. BA5 2PZ - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

This is a Grade II listed building, part of a row of shops in High Street, with a facade dated 1885 and initialled WH, but there are some earlier parts inside. Built of brick and terracotta it is colourwashed white, is three storeys high and a single bay wide. The roof is hipped with the ridge at right angles to the road, covered in Welsh slate, and there is a brick stack at the right side.

The shop front is probably original but the doorway has been relocated to the centre from the right, the original fluted pilasters are present with lion-head capitals, the fascia very shallow and a quasi-Jacobean cornice. There are three panels of leaded lights with coloured glass over the former main window and one over the doorway.

The first and second floors have a square oriel unit in a Jacobean style, in 1:3:1 lights with transom, on a moulded lower sill with four brackets, and with a steep-pitched gablet and a deep decorated frieze between windows matched by similar panels in the main wall. The Jacobean style gable decoration has the worked initials WH and date 1885 incorporated.

The earlier parts of the building are the dado panelling under the first-floor window which appears to be re-used C17th. As with all shop interiors there has been much change, here the original staircase has been removed, but the rear gable incorporates a twelve-pane sash window with thick glazing bars, and the front first-floor room has a C19 fireplace.

The shop is now 'The Laundry' whose slogan is 'Love the way it feels, Love the way it makes you feel'.

Year of construction: 1885 Full inscription: 18 WH 85 Cross-listed waymark: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/12/2021 BRISTOLIAN visited it