Hammet Street is a street in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England, that runs between the Church of St Mary Magdalene and the town centre. It is named after Sir

Benjamin Hammet Sir Benjamin Hammet (''c.'' 173622 July 1800) was an English businessman, banker and politician, who served as Member of Parliament from Taunton (1782–1800), and as High Sheriff of London. Contemporary accounts state that he was a footman, s ...

, who had a bill passed through parliament to allow him to build the street in 1788. The street includes four

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 Irel ...

s: numbers 4 and 5–8, 9–12, 13–17, and number 18 with 33 Fore Street. The first three buildings are grade II* listed, while the last is grade II listed, and together with the Church of St Mary Magdalene and the listed buildings in Church Square, the English Heritage consider them to "form an extremely important group."

History

Sir

was born in Taunton around 1736, and was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the town from 1782 until his death in 1800. In the late 1780s, a number of Acts of Parliament were passed to make improvement to town and city centres, and Hammet carried such an Improvement Act for Taunton through in 1788. The Act allowed Hammet to purchase two houses on Fore Street, one occupied and the other empty, and demolish them to make way for the new road. The road built ran directly towards the Church of St Mary Magdalene, which had previously been accessible only via a narrow lane. Hammet Street is wide at its narrowest point, designed to allow carriages to travel to the church without endangering pedestrians. In his history of Taunton, Joshua Toulmin describes the terraces along Hammet Street as "handsome houses", and praises the way the street opened up the view of the church from the town centre. The original houses remain, and the ground floors of many are currently used as

estate agents An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting, or management of properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent. Estate agents are mainly engaged i ...

Listed buildings

Hammet Street has four

entries. On the north side, numbers 4–8 make up one entry, while on the south side, numbers 9–12 are considered one entry, number 13–17 another, and number 18 forms a separate entry, along with number 33 Fore Street. Both sides of the road are of similar design, consisting of the original eighteenth century three-storey terraces of brown brick, with each house separated by plain

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s, and continuous eaves cornice. Each property has five

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s in plain reveals. The roofs are a mix of tile and slate, and retain the original rainwater pipes. The door-cases of numbers 4–8 and 9–12 are of painted stone, with "half round Tuscan pilasters, open

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

s and traceried

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

s." Numbers 13 and 17 have similar door-cases, but with semi-circular rather than traceried fanlights. The majority of the doors have six panels, but numbers 8 and 9 have four, and number 10 has no panels. There is an archway between numbers 5 and 6. Numbers 5 and 9 have modern shop windows on the ground floor. The east side of number 8 and 9 form the side of Church Square, and each have three windows facing into the square. The entry for numbers 13–17 notes that those properties have been "considerably altered, especially on the ground floor," and have shop fronts dating from no later than the nineteenth century. Number 18 is significantly different from the other listed buildings, having been colour washed, and the part of the building facing into Fore Street has been elevated.

Notes and references

{{Reflist, 2 Grade II* listed buildings in Taunton Deane Grade II listed buildings in Taunton Deane Streets in Somerset Taunton