30-36 Bridge Street

30-36 Bridge Street is an imposing neo-Classical terrace of four houses built in red brick laid in Flemish bond with stucco and stone dressings, and a Welsh slate roof. The terrace comprises three storeys over a rusticated basement with a shallow pitched roof carrying four wide ridge stacks and deep modillion eaves.

The rectangular plan consists of four houses, with the two smaller central houses occupying two bays each and the two larger outer houses occupying three bays each. The symmetrical frontage is divided into nine bays overall. The central three bays project slightly and are surmounted by a pediment.

The rusticated half basement features tripartite vertical sliding sash windows with original panes. Above this is a platform-landing providing access to the piano nobile, which is reached via a central perron flanked by straight flights. The low iron railings with cast-iron finials at the front of the terrace appear to be original, while the iron railings to the balcony and stairs date to the 1970s.

The piano nobile is given prominence through the central bay, which features a double doorcase with three-quarter Doric columns on rendered bases supporting an entablature with a modillion cornice and triglyph frieze. The soffit and reveals are panelled, and the rectangular fanlight has bordered glazing. The doors have three panels of different geometric shapes. Single doorcases of the same design are located in the third and eighth bays.

Above the double doorcase, the central bay is lit at first-floor level by an elaborate tripartite window consisting of a six-over-six pane sash with slender glazing bars flanked by vertical two-over-two pane sashes with decorative panels on either side. The window has a segmental arch fanlight and a rusticated segmental arch above. The second-floor window employs the same design but is shorter in proportion with the narrow second floor. The remaining fenestration is regular, with six-over-six pane sashes on the piano nobile and first floor and horizontal three-over-three pane sashes on the second floor, all fitted with rusticated keyed stucco lintels. Stone bands mark the sill level on all three floors. The subsidiary rear elevation has the same fenestration as the façade and long staircase windows corresponding to the position of the doors. The brickwork shows signs of disturbance and repair, and some original doors and windows have been removed at basement level.

The interior of each house retains a legible original plan form despite later alterations. Each comprises a long entrance hall with reception rooms on one or both sides and a principal stair at the end, lit by a tall narrow window. Stone flagged floors remain in all four houses in the entrance halls, as do the principal cantilevered dog leg stairs, which have two stick balusters per tread, carved tread ends and a wreathed mahogany handrail. Three of the houses retain an arch at the end of the hallway leading to the stair, while the hall of no. 30 features a fine cornice of lion masks and rosettes. Many of the original reeded doorcases with corner roundels survive, as do the six-panel doors, although mouldings were removed from one side of some doors when fire boards were applied. Front windows on the principal floors have panelled jambs, and a number of rooms retain cornice mouldings, some deeply reeded.

A principal area of special interest is the south-west room on the piano nobile of no. 30, where remnants of a wall painting, probably dating to the mid-1820s, were recently discovered after wallpaper removal. The painting is executed in oil-distemper directly onto two or three layers of lime plaster. Having been subdivided in 1978 and recently fitted with new doors, windows, skirting boards and cornicing, the room retains the painted scheme on the west wall and parts of the north and south walls, including some remains in the alcove. The wall painting covers the entire height of the room and is divided horizontally into three sections. The bottom section, corresponding to the dado, is painted in dark red-brown with a wide border in dark green-black. The middle section has a background of dark salmon pink-terracotta, a popular Greek Revival colour of the period, upon which a multi-coloured free-hand painting is executed. The design includes a blue and white Chinoiserie plant pot containing orange Martagon lilies (also known as Turk's Cap lilies), a red geranium, green foliage (possibly bamboo leaves), a peacock butterfly and various species of birds. The upper section, corresponding to a frieze, has a background of light cream-beige upon which are painted birds resembling sparrows resting on leaf-covered branches. The condition of the painted decoration is variable throughout, with moisture ingress, structural movement, mechanical damage and accidental damage having caused deterioration. All but a section depicting the vase of flowers has been papered over in accordance with conservation advice.