page_title: The Crescent, Taunton
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: The Crescent, Taunton / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: The Masonic Hall, The Crescent, Taunton, Somerset
context_page_description: The Crescent is a street in Taunton, a town in the English county of Somerset. Construction began in 1807, during a period of extensive redevelopment in the town, driven by the Market House Society and the Member of Parliament Sir Benjamin Hammet. Lined on the eastern side by a Georgian terrace, the street follows a shallow crescent shape, broken in the middle by Crescent Way and a bit further south by St George's Place. It links Upper High Street, at its southern end, with Park Street and Tower Street to the north. On the western side, Somerset County Council have their offices in the County Hall, erected in 1935, and extended in the 1960s. The Georgian terrace, the Masonic Hall, and the County Hall are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as listed buildings.
context_section_description: On the eastern side of The Crescent, a Georgian terrace was erected in 1807. Built of "pinkish-brown" brick, each house is of three-storeys plus a basement, and is two windows across. The houses are split by plain pilasters and topped with hipped slate roofs. While the first and second storey windows are rectangular, those on the ground floor are round-headed, as are the doorways. The first floor windows have small, circular segmental balconies. A variety of six- and eight-panel doors are reached by climbing a small flight of steps, and the entire terrace is fronted with railings. This terrace forms two separate listed building designations from Historic England; numbers 1–11 and 15–20, both of which are Grade II* listed. 
  The terrace was later split, and is intersected by Crescent Way, which leads to the Crescent car park. On the southern side of Crescent Way, the northern end of the terrace formed by numbers 15–20, is Exchange House, the former GPO Telephone House. According to Pevsner, this building breaks the modesty of the street, with "its thick-set Tuscan porch". At the southern end of the same terrace is the Masonic Hall, another Grade II* listed building, which forms the end of the terrace, and features a series of prominent Ionic pilasters along the front and southern end.
  A further terrace to the south of the Masonic Hall is split from the hall by St George's Place. It is formed of numbers 21 to 23 The Crescent, and number 42 Upper High Street. The terrace forms two listed building designations, both Grade II. Numbers 21 and 22 The Crescent are two-storey roughcast houses, each spanning three windows. The doorways are round-headed, and are flanked by ground floor bay windows. Number 23 forms the back of 42 Upper High Street, and is a two-storey red brick building.
  On the western side, the first part of the County Hall was built in 1935, and is known as "A Block". It was designed by Vincent Harris, and is Neo-Georgian. It is a three storey, built out of red and buff-coloured bricks forming an English bond, with Portland stone dressings. The central section is curved, with wings at 45 degrees to the formed main entrance. The ground-floor is fronted with ashlar, and has three round arches, the middle one of which forms a doorway. The doorway is topped by an engraved coat of arms in the tympanum. The central block spans nine windows, while each wing has a prominent window at the end, framed by an aedicule. The first and second floors of the wings feature eleven sash windows. An extension was made to the south of the building in the 1960s. The original "A Block" is designated as a Grade II listed building.
caption: The Masonic Hall, which was originally built as a Catholic chapel
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 60D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:09:01 10:02:36", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image ExifOffset": "2300", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5486", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4388", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:07:15 19:35:31", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:07:15 19:35:31", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "45/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "45/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "76", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "76", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "76", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3456", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "5184", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5360", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "3011405300", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 55, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000040367", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4068"}