2-20, SWINLEY ROAD

A terrace of ten town houses at 2-20 Swinley Road, Wigan, built in 1875 by J Ford Mackenzie for the Wigan Land and Building Company, and subsequently altered. The houses are constructed of red brick in a header bond at ground floor, with an English garden wall bond above, along with some facing of sandstone rubble and scored stucco. The roofs are slate, hipped over the centre and ends, and arranged over two levels. The design utilizes a double-depth plan, with each house being single-fronted and featuring back extensions which are coupled at the centre and ends.

The architectural style is eclectic, incorporating both Gothic and Italianate features. The houses are arranged over three storeys, with basements, and have a symmetrical composition with ten windows per front, giving a 2:3:3:2:2:3:3:2 arrangement. Numbers 2 and 20 project forward and are taller than the intermediate ranges. The basements incorporate scored stucco with segmental-headed windows with altered glazing. The centre and ends showcase sandstone rubble facing to the ground floor, Lombard friezes to bracketed eaves, while intermediate ranges feature continuous slated pentice roofing over the ground floor and brick corbel tables to the eaves, broken by a sawtooth course. A continuous impost band runs above the first-floor level, and a sillband utilizes dogtoothing at the second floor. High flights of steps, quarter turned except at the ends, lead to tall, segmental-headed doorways with heavy corbelled cornices. These doorways have doors with colonnetted 2-light glazing and overlights. The ground floor features bay windows: rectangular with pilasters and prominent cornices to the central and end houses, and canted to the others. At the first floor, a tall tripartite window sits alongside a single-light window, both with segmental-headed lights, polychrome extrados, and linked archbands of moulded brick. The second floor displays one- and two-light windows with enriched sunk panels between the centre and end houses, and pairs of one-light windows to the others. Most windows are sash without glazing bars. Chimneys rise from the front slope.

The rear of the terrace features two-storey back extensions with monopitched roofs to the centre and ends, and windows with altered glazing. This is a good example of later Victorian town housing, and it is set within a group which includes Nos 5-15 opposite and the Church of St Michael to the west. The interior has not been inspected and the building is included for group value.