31-37 (odd) Friar Lane

31–37 Friar Lane

This is a row of three houses facing south-east onto Friar Lane. Numbers 35–37 and 33 date to the early 18th century, while number 31 dates to the early 19th century. The buildings were later converted to offices and then to student flats. They are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with brick dressings.

Numbers 35–37 form a three-storey, four-bay house under a shallow pitched roof with a brick eaves cornice and a chimney stack rising from the left gable end. A moulded plinth and two wide storey bands run beneath sill level. The sash windows have been replaced by new top-opening six-light windows under the original flat brick arches. The centrally placed front door retains its shouldered architrave with small frieze and moulded cornice supported by shaped brackets, although the door itself is not original. To the left, a window now replaces what was originally a door with a moulded doorcase, as recorded in the 1975 list entry. The rear of the house comprises two parallel ranges forming an M-shaped roof.

Number 33 is a two-storey building, originally probably four window bays wide until it was refronted in the early 19th century. The brick eaves cornice and first-floor storey band continue from number 35–37. The off-centre doorway with rectangular fanlight and flush-panelled door mentioned in the 1975 list entry has been lost due to the creation of a wide arched opening in the left two bays providing access to the rear, where the entrances to numbers 33 and 37 are situated. Two windows occupy the ground floor to the right of this opening and three windows the first floor, all early 19th-century six-over-six pane sashes with slender glazing bars under flat rubbed brick arches. Like numbers 35–37, the rear consists of two parallel ranges.

Number 31 is a three-storey, four-bay house with a moulded brick eaves cornice and chimney stacks at the gable ends with oversailing brick courses. It follows a double-pile plan under a shallow pitched roof. The fenestration comprises six-over-six pane sash windows with slender glazing bars under flat rubbed brick arches, with sills forming continuous storey bands. The end bays contain recessed, round-headed doorways with six-panel doors and decorative fanlights, the metal bars forming an arch with fanned segments.

The rear elevations are of secondary importance. Number 31 is rendered and has mostly new windows without glazing bars, except for a Diocletian window lighting the top of the staircase. The rear of number 33, also rendered, was substantially rebuilt in the late 19th or early 20th century with hipped roofs and new windows. The parallel ranges at the rear of numbers 35–37 form two brick gables with horned sash windows that are not original.

The interior of the houses has been substantially altered by conversion to student flats, with very little of the original fixtures, fittings or joinery surviving. One ground-floor room in number 33 retains a grey marble fireplace of simple design with shaped brackets supporting the mantelshelf and blue-tiled cheeks, possibly a later insertion. Numbers 31 and 35–37 have brick vaulted cellars with arched alcoves; the cellar at 35–37 has been converted into a kitchen.