17, Beach Lawn

17 Beach Lawn is a house, likely built in 1867, that has undergone some alterations. It features red brick in Flemish bond with sandstone dressings and a steeply-pitched slate roof adorned with broad fishscale bands and red cockscomb ridge tiles. The design is in an eccentric High Victorian Gothic style with an irregular double-depth plan.

The building has two low storeys and two unequal bays, creating an asymmetrical appearance. The wider first bay has a gabled roof, while the narrower second bay has a small gable above it, both with stepped coping. The left bay includes a wide two-storey canted bay window with four stone-mullioned segmental-pointed lights at the ground floor, above which are four amorphous stepped brick arches. The first floor features a four-light window with columns at the angles and a hipped fishscale slate roof. The right bay has a wide segmental-pointed three-light transomed window at the ground floor, with a central glazed door and leaded stained glass in the top lights. The first floor has a small canted oriel supported by brackets. The left side of the house, which faces Harbord Road, serves as the entrance front.

The interior has not been inspected. Historically, the house was owned or occupied by Dr. Drysdale, who installed heating and ventilation equipment that is reportedly still in place. The house is adjacent to No. 16, forming a pair in free Gothic style that contrasts interestingly with the larger Italianate group to the right, which includes Nos. 1-15 consecutively. All the listed buildings in Beach Lawn, along with those in Adelaide Terrace, Bath Street, Marine Crescent, and Marine Terrace, contribute to a group within the Waterloo Conservation Area of Crosby.