9-15, Frenchwood Street

This is a row of seven small town houses located at 9-15 Frenchwood Street, Preston, built around 1830 and subsequently altered. The houses are constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with sandstone dressings, and have slate roofs. They have a double-depth plan, with each house having a single front and coupled back extensions, although No. 15 has an individual extension. A through lobby is located centrally within each pair of houses.

The architecture is characterised by a first-floor sill band, a plain frieze, and a moulded gutter cornice, which steps down by eight rows of bricks at No. 15. The doorways, which form a triplet in the centre of each pair with the lobby door between, have varying numbers of steps – three at Nos. 9 to 12, four at Nos. 13 and 14, and two at No. 15, all with nosings except for the altered steps at No. 10. They feature round-headed architraves with set-in Tuscan quarter-columns, plain lintels, and originally had semicircular fanlights with convex moulded surrounds. The doors themselves have been altered. Each house originally had one window at ground floor and two above. The windows are sashed without glazing bars at Nos. 9, 11 (restored) and 14, with the others altered. All have raised sills and wedge lintels. Cellar windows are at pavement level and have been altered, with some protected by gratings. Ridge chimneys are present.

The rear of the houses features coupled, two-storey extensions with lean-to roofs, all additions except for the gabled extension to No. 15. The interior of No. 9 includes a small scullery in the back extension and a cellar, entered by steps from the original kitchen, containing a central drain and washing boiler. All the properties are known to have had former laundry cellars beneath the front rooms. The row of houses forms part of a formerly complete grouping of late 18th century lower-middle-class town houses.