Restaurant, including attached rear range (Thai Decor)

Cadw's description

Location

On the corner of Castle Street and Rating Row.

History

An early C17 house and formerly known as 'Cwrt Mawr', or 'Ty Mawr', a Bulkeley family residence. It was originally a hall house with lateral fireplace and rear stair turret. It was remodelled in the early C19 in Georgian style. At the same time the building was divided into 2 houses, in which form it is shown on the 1829 town plan. One entrance faced Castle Street and a new entrance was created in the Rating Row elevation, which opened to a lean-to entrance hall behind the original house, incorporating a new stair. A rear range, formerly a separate property, had also been amalgamated with Ty Mawr by this time. Original details of the rear range, which was probably a C17 house, have been obscured. A blocked doorway suggests that the original entrance was on what is now the rear side of the property, obscured by the later addition of houses (Nos 2-4 Rating Row) against it.

In 1920, when the building was sold by the Baron Hill estate, the R-hand side was, with No 8, the Rowlands Temperance Hotel. The L-hand side was The Bun Shop with tea rooms, and featured a distinctive first-floor balcony that was taken down c2000. Later in the C20 the lower storey became a shop and the middle storey was a restaurant.

Exterior

A late Georgian 3-storey house and shop on a corner site, with entrances in Castle Street and Rating Row. It has a short rear wing, to which a link has been made to a formerly detached range at the rear, also entered from Rating Row.

The 4-bay Castle Street front is an early C19 remodelling to form a symmetrical 3-bay house to the centre and R with 1-bay house to the L entered from Rating Row. Walls are scribed roughcast painted white, the roof slate with a roughcast stack to the R, and a stone stack to the L with 2 diagonal shafts. The central entrance to the R-hand dwelling has Tuscan columns to a gabled open porch, and has a replacement glazed door below an overlight boarded up and painted with Gothic intersecting glazing bars. To the R and L are C20 plate-glass shop windows in early C19 openings (probably originally with tripartite sashes). In the middle storey is a 12-pane hornless sash window over the entrance, 4-pane oriel window to the R, tripartite 12-pane sash window to the L. The upper storey has a blocked R-hand window, 6-pane fixed window over the entrance bay and tripartite small-pane fixed window to its L.

The single-bay house on the L side a recessed glazed door with small-pane splayed side panels, inserted into a former window opening cut down to ground level. In the middle storey is a 16-pane hornless sash window and in the upper storey a blocked window.

In the L gabled end an early C20 balcony has been removed leaving brackets exposed. The balcony continued further L under a high wall with moulded cornice, which conceals an added lean-to entrance hall behind the main range and a small courtyard. The main Rating Row entrance has double cast iron Tuscan columns and a recessed half-glazed panelled door with half-glazed side panels. To its L is a segmental boarded door opening to the rear yard. The rear of the main house has gabled lateral stack R of centre and gabled roof dormer to its R. On the L side is an original stair projection, which has a coped gable on moulded kneelers, with a lower link built between the house and the formerly separate rear range. The stair projection has a blocked 2-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window to the upper storey, to the R of which is a small inserted window. To the L of the stair projection is a 9-pane sash window in a half dormer.

The rear range is rubble stone and roughcast with a steep slate roof. It has a whitened render gable end facing Rating Row. Inserted openings are a replacement door, small-pane shop window and smaller window further R. In the upper storey is a blind window with painted glazing. Its rear elevation, facing the yard at the back of the property (but probably the original entrance front), has altered openings and first-floor balcony, and is attached to No 2 Rating Row on the R side. The elevation facing the small courtyard has a small-pane hornless sash window in the upper storey.

Interior

The lower storey was originally 3 units but is now a single room with ovolo-moulded cross beams. The lateral fireplace has been infilled. The Rating Row entrance opens to a stair hall with an open-well stair with plain balusters and turned newel. The original stair projection has a replacement full-height stair with plain balusters and newels. In the middle storey are 4 cross beams with pyramid stops. Four collar-beam trusses have raking struts.

The rear range has cross beams with ogee stops and RCAHM Wales survey recorded a collar-beam roof.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as a house retaining definite Georgian character and detail, with significant earlier origins, and for its contribution to the historical integrity of Castle Street.