The Old Post

Cadw's description

Location

Fronting the street in a block of buildings on the W side of the junction with Stanley Street.

History

An C18 house, used as a posting house until c1833, after which the post was no longer carried to Holyhead via Wexham Street. The house is shown on the 1829 town plan with a rear wing and had probably only recently been altered to its present Georgian front. The rear wing was later extended, as shown on the 1889 Ordnance Survey.

Exterior

A 1½-storey house of whitened pebble dashed walls, steep slate roof, small roughcast stack to the L and larger roughcast stack to the R where the ridge line rises. Openings are offset to the L of centre. The central entrance has a replacement fielded-panel door in a doorcase with pediment, flanked by 12-pane hornless sash windows. A central attic gable has a small sash in a bullseye window, flanked by 12-pane horizontal-sliding sash windows in raked dormers. In the R gable end, on the L side, is a 16-pane hornless sash window in the lower storey and an attic casement window.

The rear is rendered. It has a central small-pane Gothic stair window, an inserted glazed door to the R, below a gabled dormer with replacement casement window. On the L side is a 2½-storey rear wing, mostly with enlarged or replacement windows, which has a 1-storey flat-roofed projection against the gable end.

Interior

The plan of the house belongs to the early C19 alterations. A central hall a stair with quarter turn, which has plain balusters and turned newel. The rooms to the R and L both retain original stop-chamfered cross beams. The reveal of the window in the R-hand room has a panelled cupboard door, probably giving access to a former posting box.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as a well-preserved C18 house of simple Georgian character, and for its contribution to the historical integrity of Wexham Street.