 When the street was built , each end featured a cottage with high iron gates which limited traffic to residents and their visitors . The footpaths were less restricted , but featured " three or four posts between which a corpulent person had difficulty in squeezing . " These gates and posts have since been removed . The Crescent comprised a terrace of houses along the street 's eastern side ; the other side was not built on and was eventually converted into parkland . In 1822 , a Catholic chapel , known as St George 's Chapel was built at the southern @-@ end of the terrace , the first Catholic church built in Taunton since the Reformation . The Catholic congregation moved out to a larger church in 1878 and the chapel was bought by the Freemasons , who converted it into a Masonic Lodge . 
