1,2,3, Bank Parade

A row of three townhouses built in the mid-19th century, after 1847. They are constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with sandstone dressings and a slate roof. Each house has a double-depth plan with a single front and a rear extension. Originally, the houses were three bays wide, and they have basements. The front features a continuous stone plinth, a moulded sill band on the first floor, a plain frieze, a moulded cornice, and doorways on the left-hand side, accessed by three steps.

Nos. 1 and 2 have doorcases constructed of engaged Ionic columns and an entablature with a cornice. The doorjambs are hollow-moulded. The altered doors have overlights with margin panes. Ground floor canted bays have cellar windows in the plinth and moulded cornices with blocking courses; the glazing has been altered. The first floor originally had three windows, the centre one now blocked, with the others altered to casements, but retaining wedge lintels. No. 3, to the left, has a late 19th-century porch composed of panelled square columns and pilasters, topped with a heavy entablature. Above the porch is a 12-pane sash window, and a two-storey canted bay with a four-pane sash window at ground floor (though otherwise the glazing has been altered), and a roof balcony protected by spear railings. Chimneys are on the slope of the front roof, and there is an attic dormer on No. 3.

No. 1 has a long return section to Frenchwood Street, including a three-storey, two-bay section with sashed windows of 12, 8, and 6 panes. This section appeared derelict and showed some window damage at the time of the survey.

The interior of No. 3 includes moulded plaster vine friezes in the front rooms on both floors, a marble fireplace on the first floor, and a main staircase with Jacobean-style balusters. The rear wing includes a kitchen with a very large fireplace, a scullery, and a pantry, as well as a servants’ staircase. The cellar rooms are complete, featuring a front laundry with a fireplace, wash boiler, and slopstone, a wine cellar with stone bins, and a tunnel running under the road to the garden opposite.