| Description: | This pair of late-medieval houses is among the most widely-illustrated of Exeter historic buildings. Standing on the corner of West Street and Stepcote hill, the houses have been referred to as No’s 11 and 12 West Street in earlier publications (Portman 1966, 91). Both buildings were heavily restored in the 1930s, with much replacement of timber, and virtual rebuilding of no. 7 West Street (there is a good range of pictures pre-restoration, such as Thomas 1995, 77-8; RENN 1723, 1726, etc.), although since the facades were rendered, they show no details of the framing . No. 5 was inspected and recorded during the most recent round of repairs in 1984 and many details of its construction were observed, despite the replacement of timbers (REN 261; Henderson [ed.] 1985, 36-8). The house has a stone (breccia) back wall and basement storey, with two timber-framed storeys above. The framing (although much repaired) could be reconstructed in elevation drawings; it shares many details with that of No. 24 West Street (Monument No. 11153), especially the paired cinquefoil-headed timber windows, distinctive curved braces, and haunched corner posts, all suggesting a late-15th or early-16th century date (Henderson [ed.] 1985, Figs 26-27). The building was originally divided into three tenements: the ground floor was a shop entered from West Street (4.25 x 7.5m, thus about twice the floor area of No 24 West Street), probably with a heated chamber behind and not communicating with the upper floors. The first floor was divided into two, with separate entries; the south-west room was again a single-roomed tenement, and thus probably a shop (entered from Stepcote Hill, presumably by steps). The north-east room may have communicated with the second floor, which also contained two chambers, that to the north-east heated: this would then have comprised a shop at first floor level (also entered from Stepcote Hill), with living accommodation above (ibid., 38). No. 7 was of four storeys, and probably also had two rooms per floor (Portman 1966, 91).
Extant: Yes |
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