descriptive building record Historic building recording (Level 2) was carried out at 42 Forgate St., Worcester, during May 2023 in advance of residential development of the site. The elegant Georgian buildings of Forgate Street are evident to the north and south of no.42, besides those houses that were rebuilt completely or refronted, and repurposed in more ostentatious C19 styles the remaining houses had their ground floors reordered to accommodate retail and commercial uses needed in the growing city. Advances in building technologies and the use of steel beams during the C19 allowed for the wide glazed shopfronts and the front window of no.42 takes up the northern three bays of the five-bay front requiring the new elaborate stone portico to be relocated south of its original location in the central bay. The building has for recent years provided office space on several floors, stripped of fireplaces and doors, new partitions added. Because of this work only glimpses of historic fabric, can be seen, however the rear garret, probably only used for storage in recent times, has retained its original character displaying numerous and significant C18 structural details. The building has moved over the centuries and some of the floors have been repaired with steel beams, evidence for C19 iron rods athwart the front range can be seen as S plates on the front wall. A curious building at the rear straddles the boundary between no. 42 and no. 41 to the north. This area was accessed through a doorway in the boundary wall, from the north but the centrally placed door on the south side, now blocked, shows it was formerly accessed from the no. 42 side and may be a survivor from this late C17 period, constructed before permanent boundaries were established.
Cook et al. (Sun,) studied this question.