7791

5 & 6  

II*  

Designated  

11/03/1981  

29/02/1996  

5 & 6 High Street  

5 & 6 High Street  

Powys  

Welshpool  

 

Welshpool  

322351  

307595  

S  

On the E corner with Park Lane.  

Domestic  

 

The house appears to have been built as a town house or mansion in the late C17, and was later divided as 2 tenements for a time, but was again in single occupation by c1885, when it was occupied by John Thomas, cabinet maker and upholsterer. It was later acquired by J H Anderson, who ran a photography business from the premises. The building has been used as an antique shop since 1919, when Fred E Anderson opened a business here.  

Brick, painted to front elevation, with some stonework to rear. Steep slate roof with rear wall axial stacks. 3 storeys with attic and cellar. Front elevation is a 6 window range, although the pattern of fenestration has been much altered. Round-arched passage entry to the left, and the main entrance to right of centre: a 6-panelled door in pedimented architrave. To its right is a mid C19 floor-length shop window divided into 3 panes by slender mullions, and with moulded cornice carried on brackets with heavy foliate enrichment. To the right of the shop front is a second doorway similar to the main entrance, and with radial fanlight. These doorways are probably late C18 and may have been inserted when the house was divided as 2 tenements - the right hand doorway cuts the cambered head of an earlier window. Left of the main entrance is a 12-pane sash window with cambered brick head, and a tripartite small-paned sash window. The fenestration above represents several phases of change: the earliest windows appear to be the 3 over the shop front and right hand doorway, which have steep cambered brick heads, and 12-pane sashes (almost certainly inserted into the original openings); similar blocked windows are visible between the 2 right-hand windows and over the main entrance. Aligned with the lower openings are 2 further 12-pane sashes with cambered brick heads, and a tripartite small-paned sash window. The fenestration of the second storey also aligns with the lower openings, but there are blocked windows above the main entrance and to the right. Modillion eaves cornice, and 5 hipped dormers with 6-pane sash windows in the roof. Rear elevation has some stone-work around the base of the two chimneys probably associated with their construction, although there is more extensive stone work in the left hand angle. Single storeyed C19 wing to the left, and a 6-panelled doorway to its right, with inserted 12-pane sash window alongside. 2 similar windows on first floor - all late C18-early C19 insertions: the straight joints visible alongside probably represent the jambs of earlier openings. 2 windows in second storey (of 6 and 12 panes); a third storey is clearly a later addition (probably early C19), and has 2x6-pane sash windows.  

The plan comprises two principle rooms on each floor, divided by a central hall, with staircase running from cellar (previously housing kitchen) to attic. Additional rooms over the through side passage on the upper storeys. The rooms are deep in plan, with rear wall fireplaces. Moulded plaster cornices encase the transverse beam in the lower left-hand room, and there is a reeded plaster cornice encasing the beam in the room above. Elsewhere, the beams are simply chamfered with stepped stops. The principle feature of the interior is the staircase, which is of c1660: it rises round a well, and has tall obelisk-like newels and pendants with raised jewelled panelwork decoration, and squared balusters with slanted mouldings; modillion moulding to closed string: attic flight is simplified, with flatter balusters; similarly styled gate to cellar flight.  

A C17 townhouse of exceptional quality.