18-28 Friar Lane and 2 Wycliffe Street

Terrace of seven houses built in the early 19th century, comprising 18-28 Friar Lane and 2 Wycliffe Street.

The terrace is constructed of gault brick laid in Flemish bond with stucco dressings and a slate roof. It faces north onto Friar Lane, with rear extensions added incrementally during the 20th century.

The façade is in late Georgian classical style with three storeys beneath a shallow hipped roof. A modillion eaves cornice runs across the top, and the roof is punctuated by wide red brick chimney stacks with overailing brick courses. The symmetrical front is thirteen window bays wide, raised on a stucco plinth.

The ground floor windows are six-over-six pane sashes with margin lights, set within stucco sills and keyed wedge lintels. The first floor is lit by windows with round heads set under moulded semicircular arches, the imposts of which extend into a continuous string course that runs along the sills. The second floor has nine-light top-opening windows with stucco sills and wedge lintels. Recessed four-panel doors sit in alternate bays, each set within a stucco architrave featuring a moulded cornice supported by console brackets and topped by a two-light rectangular overlight.

The right return facing onto Wycliffe Street has three bays with fenestration matching the main façade, followed by a two-storey range four window bays wide. Here, a wider front door stands in the first bay, followed by two flat-headed sashes. The fourth bay contains a large opening beneath a stucco lintel supported by console brackets, housing double-leaf panelled doors with an upper grille providing rear access. The first floor is lit by five semicircular arch sash windows, with the end two arranged as a pair.

The rear elevations are of red brick with a dentilled eaves cornice. Windows throughout are mostly sashes with glazing bars. Various 20th-century extensions of different heights have been added to the rear.

Internally, numbers 20 and 22 retain their original plan form: an entrance hall opening through a semicircular arch to the staircase, with two reception rooms along the side. The dogleg stairs feature a panelled spandrel and open string course with carved tread ends, supporting a mahogany handrail that terminates in a curtail. Both houses preserve typical early 19th-century features including moulded door and window surrounds, four-panel doors, moulded cornices, and multiple fireplaces. Some fireplaces have grey marble surrounds while others are faced with highly polished limestone full of fossils. Most grates are boarded up, though number 20 retains several, including a hobgrate and a segmental arch grate decorated with foliate detail.

In number 20, a room added at the rear around 1900 has a hipped ceiling and casement windows with a central semicircular arch and decorative stained glass. Its fireplace has a plain surround with a tripartite overmantel and moulded cornice.

Number 22 has a polished stone floor in the entrance hall laid in a diamond pattern, and original floorboards survive in the front reception room and one bedroom. Some windows retain vertically sliding shutters housed below in panelled boxes. The basement contains an original shallow stone sink and a 19th-century kitchen range with oven and boiler set in a wide timber surround.

Numbers 24-26 have undergone considerable alteration, with few original fixtures surviving beyond some four-panel doors, vertically sliding shutters, and a grey marble fireplace with hobgrate. The basement contains two kitchen ranges: one matching that in number 22, and a smaller example with a hood in Art Nouveau design.