Details
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SK5739NW
646-1/20/344
NOTTINGHAM
LONG ROW WEST (North side)
No 54-57
(Formerly listed as Nos.54 AND 57 Habitat (54) and RJ's Homeshop (57), previously listed as: LONG ROW WEST Nos.52-57 (consec) Pearson's Department Store)
11/05/88
GV
II*
Facades of three former merchants' houses. 1705, c1720 and c1740. Converted to shops late C19, converted to a department store c1920, largely demolished c1990 and now divided into two units. Painted brick, with painted ashlar and brick dressings, and coped gables. Roofless.
EXTERIOR: left house has a canopy carried on four cast-iron Doric columns, covering a blocked doorway flanked by shop windows. Above, two floors each with five glazing bar sashes linked by a brick band, the upper windows with moulded surrounds and projecting keystones. Above again, three coped gables, each with a glazing bar sash in a projecting surround with keystone.
Central house has a ground floor arcade with three cast-iron Doric columns and C20 shopfronts. Above, two floors each with four glazing bar sashes with brick flat arches and keystones, linked by a brick band. The upper windows are taller. Above again, a bracketed wooden cornice, then four pedimented dormers, each with a two-light casement.
Right house has a ground floor arcade with two cast-iron columns, covering a C20 shopfront and a passage entrance. Above, three glazing bar sashes, the central one blocked. Above, a brick band, then three similar sashes with painted surrounds. Above again, three smaller sashes under a wooden cornice. The site includes at the north end, a large cave, probably medieval, with several flared rock columns. At the south end of the site, a later cave, now filled.
INTERIOR: basement contains various vaulted cellars, mostly carved out of the sandstone rocks, with C17 brick barrel vaulted roofs. One cave contains a round pillar with capital and lighting niches, this is reputed to be medieval. The western block has pairs of very large oak beams to all the upper floors, though walls have been replaced by steel girders, to the rear is a single flight return staircase with splat balusters, some replaced, which rises through the upper three floors. The central block contains two original panelled rooms on the first floor. The right hand room has two full walls of tall and deeply raised and fielded panels. The left room has three walls of simpler fielded panelling with over doors, cupboards and an overmantel. Both rooms retain their moulded cornices. Both upper rooms retain their original fireplaces.
Behind the central block are two C16 warehouses which are now only visible in the attics where the trusses are visible, there is also a single flight return staircase with two turned balusters per head, which rises through the three upper floors, and also a splat baluster back staircase which runs also through three floors.
(Reprint from The Mercian Geologist, Vol. 13, Sept. 1992: Waltham AC: The sandstone caves of Nottingham: Nottingham: 1992-: 11,12).
Listing NGR: SK5706339951
