Numbers 1, 2 And 3 Grosvenor Mansions

Numbers 1, 2, and 3 Grosvenor Mansions are a row of three villas or boarding houses, dating from the mid-19th century. They may have been designed by Sir Joseph Paxton for the Duke of Devonshire. The buildings are constructed of rock-faced millstone grit with ashlar dressings and have Welsh slate roofs with stone stacks.

The Mansions are three storeys plus attics and a basement. They feature a chamfered plinth, a band at first-floor level, ground and first-floor sill bands, and flush quoins. The front elevation is symmetrical with a nine-window range. A central doorway has a projecting pilaster porch with Ionic columns and a moulded cornice, leading to a glazed door with overlight. Flanking the central doorway are pairs of two-storey canted bay windows with plain sashes and hipped lead roofs. Further single doorways with pilaster surrounds and moulded cornices, also with glazed doors and overlights, are located on either side of the bay windows, with single plain sashes above. At either end of the front are single two-storey canted windows. Above the windows are nine segment-headed plain sashes, and above that are nine gables, each with a smaller segment-headed plain sash. Basement openings are present in each bay window, and steps lead up to each doorway. The returns to the left and right have two windows with plain sashes. The interior was not inspected.

The Broad Walk, of which Grosvenor Mansions forms a part, comprises a series of Victorian villas and a walk overlooking the Pavilion Gardens originally laid out by Paxton around 1850. The surrounding houses were built by speculative developers and some are believed to have been designed by Paxton’s former pupil, Edward Milner, from 1871. Sanders & Woolcott of London were the builders for the 7th Duke.