18,18A,20 AND 20A, LINDEN AVENUE

A pair of semi-detached houses, now flats, dating from around 1870 and designed by Norman Shaw. They were originally located in Church Preen, Shropshire, and were dismantled and rebuilt on this site in 1921. The buildings are constructed of coursed squared stone with close studding and rendered infill, featuring ashlar dressings and gabled and hipped roofs covered in plain tiles with decorative ridge tiles. The architectural style is Tudor Revival. The properties have two ridge stacks and two side wall coped stone stacks. They are single storey plus a basement and attics, with a four-window front. The windows feature leaded glazing and wooden mullions. A projecting central section has a large timber-framed double gable with carved bargeboards and elaborate wrought-iron finials. The upper floor is jettied, supported by brackets, and features two three-light windows in each gable, with a carved cambered bressumer. Below, each gable has two larger three-light cross casements. To either side is a recessed entrance bay with a chamfered ashlar doorcase with a studded plank door, accessed via round-arched stone bridges with wooden balustrades. The basement has a central square panel displaying a coat of arms, flanked by single small wooden cross casements, and further smaller single casements. The interior remains uninspected. The buildings originally formed the upper floors of the entrance front of Preen's Manor in Salop, which was demolished in 1921-22, and the components were salvaged for re-erection in Linden Avenue.