Listed building or place reference: HE0396

Historic site reference
Property: 9
Road name: Pier Road
Parish: St. Helier
Location: View on map
Grade: Listed Building Grade 1
Category: Residential (town house)
Statement of significance: No 9 Pier Road is of historical significance for being a rare example of a substantial merchant house located at the heart of St Helier's growing commercial harbour in the early part of the 19th century. The building is the first museum to be opened in Jersey, and has continued to serve as a Museum open to the public for over a century. No 9 is a good example, and good survival, of a Georgian style house of the Neoclassical style, popularised in England between 1760 and 1790, and preceding the Regency style that later became popular in St Helier. The Georgian style developed at a time of growing trade and mercantile activity and thus spread to most British seaports from North America to Australia. In this context No 9 Pier Road is of international interest and significance. It is of significance to Jersey as being a rare example of a town house of substantial size and executed to a high standard of internal and external finishes. The use of granite for the external elevation adds a specifically local Jersey character to the property, compared to the predominant use of stucco elsewhere. Furthermore as a merchant house it represents a hybrid type of house peculiar to the period combining business interests, family life and a respectable public face for the family.
Context: n/a
External Description: 9 Pier Road is a 4 bay, 4 storey terraced town house. The property is set back from the road with a high stone wall with an arched gateway. The wall has been lowered approximately 6 feet from its original height. The house is set on two levels of entry, the ground floor level accessed from Pier Road, and the lower ground floor level accessed from Weighbridge Place. Cellar vaults under the front garden provided space for coal and other storage. A three bay single storey annex (Billiard Room) is located on the east side. A front garden and paved entrance link is formed over the vaults. The two vaults on the west side have been removed and the wall built up incorporating a blank date stone with the date 1750. The Weighbridge side which would originally have been a working yard associated with shipping and/or the domestic life of the house, has been much altered. The current layout is part of the re-organisation linked to the new Museum building that sits on the east side. Both the north facing front elevation onto Pier Road and the south facing rear elevation onto Weighbridge Place are in uniformly sized cut and dressed stone. The windows on the north elevation are framed in stone. The hipped roof is set back behind a parapet delineated with a string course. Two brick chimneys are located on the east and west walls. A porch with granite Tuscan order columns and simple cornice frames the front door. The door is a good example of the period with a fanlight and side lights with decorative glazing patterns. The door is 6 panel, as is the lower ground floor door immediately below. This door has a rectangular overlight with a glazing bar pattern. The windows are 12 pane (6/6) sash windows, with internal shutters. The Billiard Room annexe to the east is stucco in ashlar effect with a string course similar to the house. The three full height windows are framed by console brackets, the centre one pedimented.
Internal Description: Inside, a side passage runs front to back on the east side of the lower ground floor, connecting to the central staircase on the west side of the house through a set of marble columns halfway down. The first floor entrance is also to the side, the hall connecting though an arch to the east-west landing and staircase. On each floor an east/west landing with the staircase at its west end separates the rooms facing the north or south side. Although the house has the frontage of a terrace house, the interior layout has more similarities with a Palladian style layout around a central hall and staircase. The staircase, lit by an oval shaped rooflight, oculus, above rises from the lower ground floor to the attic. The lower section up to the ground floor is in stone (Portland?), with ironwork balusters and a thick mahogany handrail culminating in a coil. The remainder of the staircase is timber with a mahogany bun shaped handrail, turned balusters and applique to the side of the treads. Two small niches are located in the sides at each level. Much of the timber for the house is known to have been sourced from South American timbers that were brought to Jersey on Nicolle's ships. Furthermore, many of the timber features for the house are thought to have been built in his own shipyards. The lower ground floor rooms include a three bay room on the south side. The original use of this space is not known, but may have been connected to the ship building and shipping business as it looks directly onto the yard. The two interconnected rooms on the north side, are thought to be kitchen and associated spaces. The ground floor rooms are a three bay room facing Pier Road and two rooms on the south side. The original functions of these rooms are not known, but are likely to have included a dining room, a parlour or drawing room, and possibly also an office. On the first floor, the Piano Nobile, on the south side is a large three bay room opening through to a smaller single bay room. Two rooms, thought to be principal bedrooms are located on the north side. Both the ground and the first floor rooms are decorated to the same high standard with moulded cornices throughout, high skirting boards, windows and doors set in panelled reveals and marble fireplaces. The four equally sized rooms on the second floor, most likely bedrooms of the children or other members of the family, are simpler in decoration with no cornices and timber fireplaces. The store area at the end of the landing may have been a closet space shared by the two bedrooms on this end. Both rooms on the west end of this floor also have built in cupboards on either side of the chimney breast. Now blocked, the openings that have been knocked through between ground, first and second rooms were probably part of the works undertaken while the house was converted to a Museum. Interestingly, in each room they are framed by the same pattern of architrave used around the door, window and closets in the room. The reeded, fluted or moulded architraves with paterae (the small square corner panels) are typical of the Regency period, whereas the low relief cornice mouldings with typically classical patterns bear closer resemblance to those popularly used in the late 18th century (Parissien, 1995), an indication that the architraves might be a later addition. The attic floor is simpler still, with painted doors in place of the mahogany ones seen throughout the ground, first and second floors. These spaces placed in the roof space with dormer windows would have provided accommodation for servants and storage space for household items. There are notably no fireplaces at this level.
Special interest: Architectural,Historical

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21/02/2013

ILAP Notices Schedule Listed Building grade 1

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