History
By the beginning of the 16th century, Plymouth was fast becoming one of the foremost ports of Devon with ever widening trading contacts. The wars with Spain reinforced Plymouth’s importance as the home port for many of the best-known adventurers and seamen of the 16th century, and it was famously the base for the fleet that gathered to face the Spanish Armada in 1588.
The Elizabethan House was constructed as part of a New Street on the Barbican in 1584 commission by Mayor John Sparkes to accommodate the growing prosperity of Plymouth as a maritime centre.
1592. Town Plan of Plymouth. Throughout the Middle Ages the town had suffered from being vulnerable to attack, this map represents part of an attempt to defend it. This is probably the most accurate depiction of the town at this date, with the exception of the wall, the existence of which is questionable. Besides identifiable landmarks such as the Castle, St Andrew’s Church, the market cross, the town gates and the fish cage, the streets are accurately set down and their names given. Reproduced with the kind permission of the City Archivist, Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
By the end of the 19th century much of the Barbican, was showing the effects of age and poverty, and many streets were notorious slums.
A newspaper article written by a former resident, Kathleen Courtenay Morris, describes the house before the first world war:
“The house was quite close to the docks and rooms were in great demand when sailors of many nationalities charged ashore, avid to enjoy themselves. Some nights were pure bedlam with the sound of hurried footsteps up and down the uncarpeted stairs and passageway, muffled voices and whisperings giving way to loud oaths and threats. My mother ignored the knockings on her door, the pleading and shouted works of love as amorous eager men became confused as to the whereabouts of the lady loves… on most mornings an old, two-handled galvanised bath full of bottles, all empty could be seen standing at the bottom of the steps, waiting collection.”
The Addison Housing Act
The Addison Housing Act identified 19 different areas of Plymouth for clearance including New Street and the city’s old Elizabethan quarters. The area subject to demolition including New Street was a district of 152 cottages and houses, 2 cobbled streets, with 1330 inhabitants and nearly 9 people per house.
A report by the SPAB dated 10th January 1927 campaigns for the retention of good housing in the Barbican and that health in the Barbican is much better than in other parts of Plymouth.
Government funding incentivised clearance and rebuilding, however, clearance would have involved re-housing 750 people vital to the economy and community of the Barbican, who could not afford the increased rents of new buildings.
The SPAB identified that the clearance scheme would cost seventy-two per cent more than reconditioning the existing properties and would mean only rehousing 480. The proposed scheme was to sanitate and save the existing buildings rather than proceed with demolition.
A number of the works and stores immediately connected with the trades of the quayside would remain and still be profitable to their owners and the town.
“Each house is to be provided with electric light instead of gas. Each a wash house and in each tenement a separate WC in each yard – the new outbuilding to be a newly constructed or reconditioned so as to be easily kept clean. An attempt would be made to provide a bath for each house. Water and a sink should be put into each tenement. The removal of many buildings would give the opportunity which would be taken for opening new windows in the houses.”
The cost of the scheme was £30,000 rather than £120,000 and enabled 800 people to stay where they were, with some new built flats also constructed.
AS Parker and the Elizabethan House
Photograph of the Elizabethan House prior to restoration. Reproduced with thanks to the SPAB Archive
Architect A.S Parker raised awareness of the importance of the Elizabethan House and in 1927.
A SPAB report included proposals for saving it. “The house should be repaired as a dwelling of this period and furnished with pieces which such as house would like to contain, to remain an attraction to visitors, a joy to those who dwell there and a pride of Plymouth”. Funding between wars was sparse and meant that as much work was done on a limited budget. Parker carried out much of his work free of charge.
In 1950, No.32 New St opened as The Elizabethan House Museum and remained as a much-loved memory of many who lived and school in Plymouth until closure in 2015 due to safety concerns. The museum was very out of date with a collection that had no provenance with the house being acquired elsewhere.
The Elizabethan House Museum
james mackintosh architects limited
First Floor, 21 The High Street,
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
OX7 5AD
01608 692 310 / 07880 727 150