26-28 St John Street

▪ Grade II listed timber framed building

▪ Known as the Gingerbread shop

▪ It is late 15th century proven by dendrochronology

▪ Restored in the late 20th century

▪ It has been a confectioner’s since before 1821

▪ It was Spencer’s for about 80 years

Numbers 26-28 are on the south side of the street opposite to Millennium Square.

The Building

This Grade II listed building is late 15^th century (confirmed by dendrochronology of the timbers), probably originally built as a speculative commercial development of three shops with accommodation on the first floor.

The first floor is jettied which means that it projects beyond the dimensions ofthe ground floor. The building was restored in the late 20^th century. There is a rear wing which dates from the 18^th and 19^thcenturies.

The building has undergone significant alterations having been combined into a single unit. The first-floor 6x6 sash windows are 18^th century and the rendering has been changed through time. The earliest photograph (see below left) shows it fully rendered with block incisions but a later photograph (see below right) shows faketimbering (still retained next door at 30 St John St). Only after the late 20^thcentury restoration were the oak timber frame (studding) with wattle and daubinfill panels revealed (see top).

The original sub-division of the property remains visible in the surviving fabric with evidence for partition walls (see roof beam in photograph below top), and the closed roof trusses. On the partition wall with 30 St John St, a small part of the wattle has been exposed behind glass (see photograph below upper left).

To the right there is a doorway which leads to a yard and the rear wing. In the 1881 and 1901 censuses this wasr eferred to as French’s Yard and Spencer’s Yard respectively with Thomas French and Henry T. Spencer being the respective occupant of 26-28 St John St at this time. Two or three households in the yard were listed in these censuses.

The History of its Occupation and Use

It is believed to have been an inn named The Roebuck until the 1800s becoming a bakery towards the end of the decade. Legend has it that a French PoW from the Napoleonic Wars gave the recipe for gingerbread to the baker.

The earliest occupant of the Gingerbread Shop identified is John Bass who was there from no later than 1822 until about 1860. His occupation is given as confectioner or corn dealer in the commercial directories and census records while after 1842 he had another role as registrar.

In the 1860s he was succeeded by the Chaplains/Chaplins, William and John, whose occupation were given as bakers and confectioners. They were in turn succeeded by Thomas French through the 1870s and most of the 1880s until Henry Tomlinson Spencer took over in 1887.

The name Spencer was associated with the Gingerbread Shop until at least the 1960s even after Stephen Pearson became sole proprietor when Henry Tomlinson Spencer retired in 1938. The Pearsons would remain involved until Bird’s took over the shop around 2000.