16 And 17, Broad Walk

A pair of semi-detached villas or boarding houses, now two separate houses, dating from the mid-19th century. They were possibly designed by Sir Joseph Paxton for the Duke of Devonshire. The buildings are constructed of coursed millstone grit with ashlar dressings and a shallow hipped Welsh slate roof featuring bracketed overhanging eaves and three stone stacks.

The architecture is three storeys high, with raised quoins, a chamfered plinth, and a first-floor sill band. Each house has a three-window front. A central doorway is present in each house, with a part-glazed door and overlight set within moulded pilaster surrounds topped with cornices. Above the doorway is a segment-headed sash window with a keystone. Flanking the central window are single two-storey canted bay windows, each with segment-headed 2/2 and plain sashes, topped with hipped slate roofs. Above those are a single central 2/2 sash window flanked by tripartite sashes.

The left return side features 2/2 sash windows and a two-storey wooden canted bay window to the left, with 2/2 and plain sashes. The right return side is similarly treated with sash windows.

The interiors were not inspected during the listing process.

The Broad Walk is a collection of Victorian villas and a promenade overlooking the Pavilion Gardens originally laid out by Paxton around 1850. While most surrounding houses were built by speculative developers, some were reputedly designed in detail by his pupil Edward Milner from 1871, and constructed by Saunders & Woolcott of London for the 7th Duke.