14-32 Howard Street

Terrace of houses, probably dating to the 1850s, comprising 14-32 Howard Street. Number 30 has been in use as a mosque since 1958, with later expansion into numbers 28 and 32. The building is two storeys high with basement and attic levels.

The terrace is constructed mainly of sandstone bricks with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. The front (south) elevation is arranged in two-bay sections per house. Classical ashlar doorcases with pilasters feature on most houses, and ashlar bay windows are set at ground-floor level. The ground floor is raised, with front entrances accessed via short flights of stone steps flanked by a mixture of railings and low sandstone walls. Some four-panel doors survive, though others have been replaced with modern doors. Two-over-two sash windows exist on the first floor, except numbers 22 and 26, which have uPVC replacements. All first-floor windows except number 14 have plain reveals.

Most of the terrace has a dentilled eaves cornice, though number 22 has a bracketed eaves with paired brackets. Numbers 24-32, forming the western half, appear to have been built together and are identically styled, sharing a plain ashlar sill band to the first floor. A through carriageway between numbers 30 and 32 provides access to a lane serving the rear of the terrace and separates it from buildings fronting Edmund Street. Above the carriageway entrance is a modern signage board displaying the name and contact details of the Jamia Masjid. Number 32's west gable end is rendered, though the render is missing in places, and has a small inserted window at ground-floor level.

Number 22 features a doorcase with carved consoles supporting a shallow hood and a first-floor ashlar sill band. Numbers 16-20 also appear to have been built together with identically styled sills to their first-floor windows. Number 14, at the eastern end, is treated differently from the rest of the terrace. Its front elevation comprises coursed ashlar blocks with a more elaborate doorcase incorporating half-columns with composite capitals and an arched head with carved decoration to the spandrels and a plain keystone. The ground-floor bay window has a dentilled cornice, and the first-floor windows have eared and shouldered surrounds with a carved sill band below. A deep dentil eaves cornice exists at the top of the front elevation, and the east gable-end is rendered. Some corniced chimneystacks survive to the eastern half of the terrace, and multiple modern skylights exist on the roofs.

On the east side of the carriageway between numbers 30 and 32 is a large inserted doorway with a triangular lintel and modern double doors providing access to the mosque. A number of early 21st-century extensions of varying height have been constructed to the rear (north side) of numbers 28-32 in the former locations of yard areas. Some houses in the terrace retain their rear yards with boundary walls.

The interiors were not inspected during the survey. However, the first floor of numbers 28-32 is known to have been opened up into a single prayer hall space, as has the ground floor of numbers 28 and 30. Mehrab niches, which face towards Mecca, are believed to have been inserted into the Qibla-facing walls at basement, ground-floor and first-floor levels.