The John Edes House

The building was built for John Edes, a maltster, and his wife, Hannah, and completed in 1696. It was originally thought to have been designed by Sir Christopher Wren but this theory has more recently been discounted as unlikely. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing West Street with the last two bays at each end slightly projected forwards; the central bay, which was faced with Portland stone, featured a doorway on the ground floor with broken curved pediment above; there was a casement window on the first floor flanked by narrow Ionic order pilasters and a pediment above. It was then acquired by a local man, William Duke, in 1860. During the 19th century it…