12,13,14, BANK PARADE

This is a terrace of three town houses located in Preston, built in the middle to later 19th century and subsequently altered. The houses are constructed of sandstone ashlar with a slate roof. Each house has a double-depth plan, a single front, and a rear extension. They are two storeys high with cellars and attics, comprising two bays each.

Architecturally, the houses feature a plinth, a first-floor sill band, a bracketed cornice with a low blocking course, and raised rusticated quoins at the left and right ends. Numbers 12 and 13 were originally built as a reflected pair, with doorways flanking a shared through-lobby. Number 14 has a doorway in the second bay. The doorways are accessed by three steps and feature moulded architraves with cornices on consoles. The original recessed doors are panelled at Numbers 12 and 14, with alterations at Number 13. Each doorway has a rectangular overlight; the one at Number 12 retains margin panes. The through-lobby doorway between Numbers 12 and 13 has a panelled lintel with a cornice, and an unglazed overlight with ornamental iron openwork. At ground floor, each house features a rectangular bay window supported by square columns with anthemion-enriched capitals. The windows have an entablature with a plain frieze and dentilled cornice, panelled aprons, and sash windows without glazing bars, except for Number 13 which has been altered. All first-floor windows are sash windows without glazing bars and have moulded architraves with cornices; those above the doors have consoles. There are inserted attic dormers, and ridge chimneys, with bracketed cornices on those at Numbers 12 and 13. Number 13 was the home of Joseph Livesey (1794-1884), a pioneer of the teetotal movement.