34-38, King Street

A row of three houses at 34-38 King Street, Lancaster, dating to the late 18th century, with alterations made in the 19th and 20th centuries. The houses are now offices, a shop, and a surgery. They are constructed of sandstone ashlar in narrow courses, with ashlar dressings. The roofs are slate-covered, and there are chimneys of brick and stone. Each house has a double-depth plan and a single front. There are three storeys over a high basement, with three bays per house. Nos. 34 and 36 were built with adjoining doorways, and No. 38 has a doorway in the third bay. Chamfered quoins mark the corners. Each house has a raised entrance reached by a flight of six steps protected by bar railings with ramped handrails, and a recessed door with a raised, plain surround. Nos. 36 and 38 have partly-glazed doors with raised and fielded panels; the glazing of No. 36 is treated as an integral overlight with diamond-patterned glazing bars. A shop front has been inserted into the ground floor of No. 36, replacing the original, and No. 38 has a basement area protected by railings with urn finials to the standards and a gate opposite the basement doorway. The steps to No. 34 have been replaced in concrete. The windows have painted raised, plain surrounds, but the first-floor windows of No. 38 have lower sills than the others. No. 34 has sash windows without glazing bars on the principal floors and four-pane sashes at the second floor. No. 36 has four-pane sashes. No. 38 has 12- and 9-pane sashes. Ridge chimneys are located at the junctions between the houses. The rear of the building includes a bow window at ground floor level on No. 38. Inside No. 38, a dogleg staircase features an open string, carved brackets, two slim turned balusters per tread, and a ramped handrail with a wreathed curtail. The first and second floors contain three 18th-century fireplaces with fielded panels and raised or fluted keystones.