9-10 Castle Ditch

Cadw's description

Location

In a row of frontages directly opposite Caernarfon Castle.

History

Shown as a pair of late C18 or early C19 houses, on the 1834 town plan. They formerly had railings in front of basement steps, which are shown on the 1888 Ordnance Survey, by which time the houses had probably been converted as business premises. No 9 was the office of the Arvon Model Building Society in 1895. The railings were removed mid C20 when a new shop front was built out over the original basement steps.

Exterior

Originally 2 premises, designed to read as one, comprising Georgian house and shop of 3 storeys and 3 bays, of scribed roughcast walls, slate roof and brick stack to the L. In the lower storey is a well-detailed mid C20 shop front projection (continuous with No 11), which has wood-mullioned and transomed windows and a dentilled cornice. In the middle storey are renewed 12-pane horned sash windows in architraves, with similar 9-pane sashes in the upper storey. The upper storey windows have a sill band.

The rear wall is roughcast, and has a narrow 2-pane sash window to the centre in the middle storey.

Interior

No 9 retains original stairs at the rear in a series of parallel flights. Beneath the projecting shop fronts are basement steps, with surviving basement sash window to No 9, leading to segmental brick-vaulted chambers, with limewashed walls and cobbled floors, beneath the pavement.

Reason for designation

Listed as a fine simple late Georgian building, retaining good detail, in the context of a town-centre terrace; with other associated listed items it contributes to the setting of Caernarfon Castle.