21, King Street

Town house of the early 18th century with front refurbished around 1800 and restored for John Broom between 1969 and 1972, with some internal alterations.

The exterior displays brown brick in Flemish bond to the front with a grey slate roof whose ridge runs parallel with the street. It is double-fronted and symmetrical, comprising a cellar and three storeys. The rendered stone plinth contains cellar vents. The entrance door consists of four fielded panels above two flush panels, set within a panelled doorcase with pilasters featuring incised front panels and an entablature. Windows are tripartite flush sashes of 4;12;4 panes with painted stone sills and gauged brick heads with keystones: two to the first storey, three to the second storey (which has a floor-band), and two to the third storey. A moulded cornice runs beneath a rendered parapet, which is pierced by parapet gables with two rendered chimneys on each.

The rear elevation features a lean-to roofed outshut of two storeys with a round-arched small-paned window to the first storey and a pair of two-pane sashes under a cambered head to the second storey. East of the outshut are flush twelve-pane sashes to the first and second storeys and a sixteen-pane window to the third storey. West of the outshut is an inserted two-pane window beneath a nearly flush stair window of forty panes with narrower outer panes; an eight-pane radial-bar fan sits in a round brick arch. Further west is a tripartite casement of 10;10;10 panes to the first storey, a twelve-pane flush sash to the second storey, and a sixteen-pane metal casement to the third storey. A one-storey rear wing to the east has no visible features of interest.

The interior cellars retain front and base walls of back, east and spine walls in rubble sandstone (partly coursed), with other walling in brick. These cellars show indication of former direct street access and contain two brick barrel vaults with sandstone steps. The hall has HL hinges to the front door; the inner door has been removed from its opening which once held a radial-bar fanlight. The east front room contains a door of six fielded panels, a probably early 19th-century marble fireplace, sub-panels and panelled shutters to windows, an almost full-width inserted opening to the west back room, and a cornice. The back room has a door of six fielded panels, sub-panels and panelled shutters, a cornice, and two facing cupboards. The east cupboard features a lower cupboard with double doors of one fielded panel surmounted by a round-arched alcove with fluted pilasters and shelves; the west cupboard's lower portion has been removed. The west front room has a probably rebuilt rear wall, sub-panels and panelled shutters to the window, a frieze rail and cornice, and a probably replaced door of six fielded panels to the back room, now the kitchen, which also has a door of six fielded panels from the hall and a chamfered softwood cross-beam.

The good open-well open-string stair features carved foliate brackets, a curtail, turned newels, three plinthed turned balusters per step, a swept softwood rail, and a swept dado on pilasters. The east front room, altered carefully between 1969 and 1972, has a door from the landing and a repositioned door from the west front room of six fielded panels in cases with good entablatures displaying consoles, flutes and urns in relief. This room also contains skirtings, panelled embrasures, plaster wall-panels (some modified), and an inserted opening to the east rear room with Ionic pilasters and a modillion cornice. The west front and rear rooms are relined. The stair to the third storey is largely detailed as that to the second storey, except for the rebuilt third flight which has shaped brackets and stick balusters; doors of four fielded panels hang on HL hinges.