Bearland House is a

grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

Longsmith Street Longsmith Street is a street in Gloucester that runs from Bearland in the north to Southgate Street in the south. The street includes a number of Listed buildings in England, listed buildings: * 2 Longsmith Street & 28 Southgate Street * 4 Longs ...

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

, England. The house was built in the 1740s and has been used for different purposes since then. Initially it was a private house. In the early 20th century it was a school and then a

telephone exchange telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syste ...

. Since then it has been offices and used for manufacturing. The west wing was demolished in 1912.

History

The house was built in the 1740s by local lawyer Willian Jones. This involved the rebuilding or remodelling of a previous building on the same site. In 1764 it was bought by the

High Sheriff of Gloucestershire This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Gloucestershire, who should not be confused with the Sheriffs of the City of Gloucester. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (in England and Wales the office previously kn ...

. From 1904 to 1909 the building was used by the High School for Girls (now

Denmark Road High School Denmark Road High School (Formerly known as High School for Girls) is a girls' grammar school with academy status on Denmark Road, Gloucester. It has a mixed sixth form and is one of only three girls' grammar schools in Gloucestershire. It co ...

). A

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire ...

was built on the site of the west wing in 1912. Later it was used by the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

in Gloucester as a

. In 1980 the architects Preece Payne Partnership converted the building into use as offices. In 2010 Emma Willis established a clothing manufacturing centre in Bearland House, which was visited by Prince Charles in February 2020.

Architecture

The three-storey building has an ornamental facade with

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

gates and railings in front of the house. The front of the building is symmetrical with seven-

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

with a porch with Roman Ionic columns and a

Pulvinated frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns no ...

over the door in the central bay. At the top of the front, above the three central bays, is a balustrade

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

with turned balusters. The two-storey wing has a three-bay front. The interior includes a wide central hall with dado panelling and a staircase with balusters.

References

{{Buildings and structures in Gloucester Grade II* listed buildings in Gloucestershire Grade II* listed houses in Gloucestershire Buildings and structures in Gloucester