5605

32  

II*  

Designated  

23/09/1950  

13/07/2005  

Tudor Rose  

32 Castle Street  

Isle of Anglesey  

Beaumaris  

Beaumaris  

Beaumaris  

260544  

376070  

 

Fronting the street in a block of buildings between Church Street and Rating Row.  

Commercial  

 

A late medieval hall house with S cross wing facing the street. This wing has a projecting gabled bay, probably added in the C17 when a first floor was inserted in the hall. Originally timber-framed, the hall was later rebuilt in stone. The building is shown on the 1829 town plan as 2 houses. By 1899 it was a bakery. After 1945 it was an antique shop restored by the artist Hendrik Lek (d 1985) and later a bookshop.  

A 2-storey storey former hall house of rubble stone, with S wing facing Castle Street, which has a timber-framed front. The roof is slate, with roughcast stack to the rear of the hall range, which extends behind No 30 Castle Street. There are 2 front entrances, created when the building was divided into 2 houses. The L-hand entrance has a panel door in a rendered lean-to, to the L of which is a 15-pane shop window. Above it the front is close-studded and has a replacement 3-light small-pane window. The R-hand entrance is within the projecting gabled bay, in imitation of a cross wing. It has rubble-stone side walls replacing original framing, is rendered in the lower storey, above which it is close-studded with herringbone struts. It has a fielded-panel door with small-pane shop window to its R, all spanned by a moulded lintel. The upper storey has a 3-light oriel on brackets, above which the gable projects on consoles and has a moulded bressumer.  

Because the hall is obscured by buildings on all sides, the plan of the building is now only apparent from inside. The hall has a 4-bay arched-brace roof with Tudor-rose bosses, and windbraces. In its N gable end is a section of timber-framing, suggesting that the building was originally entirely timber-framed. In the W wall, adjoining No 2 Church Street, is an original opening with moulded timber lintel, into which a small-pane sash window was inserted. When the hall was converted to a storeyed house the gable end was rebuilt and the fireplaces inserted. The upper storey has a fireplace with timber lintel. The lower-storey fireplace has an elliptical hood, probably dating from its use as a bakery. Spine beams support the upper floor. Beneath one of the trusses is the framing of an inserted first-floor partition, which incorporates 2 triangular-headed doorways. Later insertions include a blocked doorway and 3 windows, including a blocked sash window, in the E wall adjoining No 30 Church Street, and a corner fireplace with timber lintel. A door was inserted on the R side of the gable-end fireplace in the lower storey. The S wing has a 2-bay roof, with collar-beam truss with raking struts, and one surviving wall bracket. The eaves has been raised slightly and added purlins now rest on top of the truss.  

Listed grade II* for its exceptional interest as one of the few surviving pre-Georgian houses in Beaumaris, with especially notable interior detail and distinctive front, and for its contribution to the historical integrity of Castle Street.