20,22,24, GREAT AVENHAM STREET

A row of three small town houses, built around 1830 and subsequently altered, is located on Great Avenham Street in Preston. The houses are constructed of red brick in a 4+1 English garden wall bond, with sandstone dressings and a slate roof. Each house has a double-depth plan, a single front, and rear extensions, which may have been added later. Through-lobbies are located to the left of numbers 22 and 24.

The houses are two storeys high, with cellars beneath, and each has two bays. They feature a plain frieze and a moulded gutter cornice, with a vertical joint between numbers 22 and 24. Each house has a doorway raised two steps above ground level. Number 20 has a late 19th-century door with panelled pilasters, while numbers 22 and 24 have doorcases with engaged Tuscan columns, square abaci, a plain frieze, and a moulded cornice. Number 22 has a rectangular overlight, and number 24 has an elliptical fanlight; the lobby doorway of number 22 has a plain lintel and that of number 24 a moulded lintel. Each house has one window at ground floor and two above. Number 22 has sash windows without glazing bars; the windows of the other houses have been altered, all retain raised sills and wedge lintels.

The rear extension of number 24 is unusual, running parallel to the street. The interiors of the houses were not fully inspected, but the interior of number 24 includes an entrance hall with elaborate moulded plaster cornices, including modillions. A fireplace in the front parlour features fluted Ionic columns; a similar fireplace was removed from a back room. The cellar comprises two rooms: the front room has a fireplace, while the back room is vaulted.

The houses are part of a group which originally formed a complete set of late Georgian houses designed for the lower-middle class, built on land that was laid out in Great Avenham Field and advertised for sale as building plots in 1825.