Building record MDO28225 - 20 and 22 Castle Street, Poole

House with shop and Rising Sun public house, and outbuildings to the west. Incorporates portions of a late 16th century inn with stone walls, stone slated roofs partly re covered in tile and slate, and with the remains of a timber framed gallery at the rear. Demolished before 1970.

House with shop and Rising Sun public house, and outbuildings to the west. Incorporate portions of a late 16th century inn with stone walls, stone slated roofs partly re covered in tile and slate, and with the remains of a timber framed gallery at the rear. By analogy with similar buildings elsewhere the building probably comprised three rooms on the ground floor with an entrance passage, and at least one large room on the upper floor together with smaller chambers. The inner parlour on the ground floor is represented by the lower room of number 22 and a larger ground floor hall by the corresponding room of number 20; the latter may have extended into the site of a number 18 but this is likely that a passage also existed on part of this site and that numbers 14 and 16 occupy the site of a minor room beyond the passage. Both the existing ground floor rooms have original fireplaces. A timber gallery survives at the rear of number 20 at a lower level than the first floor. The upper rooms must have been approached from the gallery by steps up to a pair of timber framed doorways one of which survives. The north door way led to a narrow ante room divided from the room to its south by the timber framed partition, and thence to an inner heated room on the first floor of number 22. The door way to the south gave access to a larger room with an open truss, only part of which remains; he had chamfered arched braces below a collar. The outbuildings which may have served as a kitchen and other offices were originally of a single storey and were of similar length and approximately parallel to the front range.
In the 17th century a wing was added at the back of number 22 with access from the gallery. In the following century the inn appears to have suffered from a movement of the political and social centre of the town exemplified in the replacement of the Town Hall and prison built in 1572, formerly standing in the Fish Street by the present Guildhall in Market Street in 1761. Thereafter the property came to be divided into a number of separate houses. Numbers 14 and 16, and number 18 represented two phases of this work, each a rebuilding of part of the former inn. Numbers 20 and 22 were divided and number 20 included a shop on the ground floor. The alehouse functions of the inn were apparently continued but eventually confined to number 22. The outbuildings were partly rebuilt and invited to serve the new tenements at the front, except that behind number 22 which was converted into a cottage in the 18th century.
Number 20 has an original door way in the back wall with chamfered jambs and a relieving arch, but the head has been destroyed; the door way between numbers 20 and 22 has a four centred head and chamfered jambs with pyramidal stops. The original fireplace retains its relieving arch and jambs but the head was removed when the floor level was raised in the 18th century. The front wall of the ground floor was removed in the 18th century and replaced by a pair of bow fronted shop windows and the upper wall supported by iron columns and timber beams. This room was divided in the 18th century by a brick nogged partition to the south and a staircase inserted on the west side; it was then lined with reused linenfold panelling. The original ceiling was supported by joists which followed the camber of the soffit of the main beams; it was plastered and divided into a geometrical pattern by moulded oak ribs some of which remain above the staircase lobby. The upper floor at the front is divided into two rooms by an original timber framed wattle and daub partition, pierced by a late 18th century door way. Both rooms have 18th century sash windows at the front. The original doorways from the gallery, of which that to the north survives, were a pair and had oak frames with four centred heads. The gallery retains the principal timbers of its west wall at first floor level and evidently had a line of windows in the upper part of this wall.
The Rising Sun, number 22, has in the east wall an original bay window of stone of two storeys with straight chamfered and beaded mullions. The ground floor room at the front had a fireplace with chamfered jambs, most of which has been destroyed; the fireplace in the upper room retains its four centred head and chamfered jambs with pyramidal stops but has been fitted with a smaller fireplace in the 18th century.
The outbuildings have been very much altered but contain some original work. That behind number 20 has ogee stone heads to the door and window.
Demolished before 1970

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 217 & 219 (Monograph). SDO149.

Record last edited

Sep 21 2022 9:26AM