86843

23  

II  

Designated  

07/02/1973  

10/11/2005  

,23,Market Street,,,,  

23 Market Street  

Monmouthshire  

Abergavenny  

Abergavenny  

Abergavenny  

329912  

214207  

NW  

On the corner of High Street and Market Street. Part of the group of historic buildings near the Town Hall in the main commercial centre of Abergavenny.  

 

 

Possibly a late C17 gabled house, possibly a c1600 continuous jetty house given the gables during a major neo-Tudor refurbishment in c1840. More surprising is the degree of post-WWII reconstruction which is evident from early C20 photographs. These show the gable that looks down Cross Street as having a 3-light window, while the 2-light one below it is right onto the left hand corner of the house, and these are still evident in an aerial photograph of the WWII period.  

Stucco fronted, presumably over timber framing, but the mullioned windows appear to be ashlar stone, natural slate roofs with red brick stacks. Single depth plan with continuous jetty fronting Market Street. Three storeys, with one gabled bay facing High Street and two facing Market Street, the right hand one being No. 23. Ground floor of No. 1 has a late C19 shopfront with centre door facing the High Street and with two further display windows under the jetty, similar in appearance to a late C19 photograph, but with some changes. The current shop (Abergavenny Bookshop) has extended its premises into No. 11 also. The jetty is supported on seven iron posts presumably put in during the mid C19, they are certainly the same ones as shown in the late C19 photograph. The first floor has a 3-light mullion-and-transom window with 4-centred heads to the lights and a dripmould over facing the High Street and a 2-light one in either gable facing Market Street. These are off-centre, but see History. Under the join of the gables each house has a small C20 window, but the openings are shown on the early photograph, extra one to the right on No. 23. The gables have a 2-light mullion-and-transom window facing the High Street, and a plain 2-light and 3-light one facing Market Street; the first of these is post-WWII, see History. Fretted bargeboards to the gables, steeply pitched roofs. Tall 3-flued stack on rear wall of No. 1, the chimney which was on the gable of No. 23 has been removed. Rear elevation not inspected.  

Neither of the shop interiors, which are run together, show any historic features.  

Included for its special interest as a row of C16/C17 town shops with the raised pavement and covered access characteristic of West Country town building.