Number 2 And Attached Railings

ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA

SP3166SW CLARENDON CRESCENT 1208-1/1/96 (West side) 19/11/53 No.2 and attached railings

GV II

Villa and attached railings. c1825-1830 with later additions and alterations. Builders, William Buddle Sr and Jr of Nos 19 & 21 Beauchamp Hill (qv). Brownish-red brick with painted stucco facades to front, garden and right, Welsh slate roof and cast-iron railings. PLAN: double-depth. EXTERIOR: main range of 2 storeys with basement and attics, 4 first-floor windows, with recessed range to right of 2 storeys, 1 first-floor window. Garden facade has 2 storeys with basement and attics, with 2 bows to full height (4 first-floor windows). Main range. Stucco detailing includes channelling to ground floor, first-floor band supports 5 Doric pilasters arranged to ends and between windows. Plinth. Off-centre entrance: 3 roll-edged steps to part-glazed, 4-panel door. Architrave has slender pilasters and narrow lights, cambered overlight with glazing bars, plain reveals. Doric porch has pilasters and two fluted columns, stepped frieze, cornice, blocking course. Further entrance to left a 4-panel door; two 6/6 sashes. First floor has 2 x 6/6 sashes, blind opening, 6/6 sash, all with tooled architraves and sills. Basement has 8/8 sash, 2/2 sash and 8/8 sash. Frieze, cornice, low parapet with 4 fielded panels, side and roof stacks. Range to right, ground floor, has former elliptical carriage arch now with multi-paned casement. First floor has 1/1 sash with margin-lights and tooled architrave. Moulded cornice. Garden facade: ground floor has 10-pane French windows and cast-iron balcony. First floor has 6/6 sashes. Low parapet. Roof dormers. INTERIOR: retains original plasterwork and joinery including dogleg staircase with tapered rod-on-bobbin balusters and wreathed handrail. Shutters to some windows, including windows to ground-floor bows. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: railings to sides of steps have bars and spearhead finials. HISTORICAL NOTE: originally planned as Bertie Circus, the houses were constructed to face inwards with the present

garden facades as the main fronts. The Board of Health Map of 1852 indicates that Nos 15 & 17 Beauchamp Hill was included in that architectural scheme. When laid out c1825 Clarendon Crescent was known as Back Lane, however DG Squirhill's Survey of 1838 shows it with its present name, presumably by which time the scheme for a Circus had been abandoned. The original architectural scheme for Nos 1-9 (consecutive) Clarendon Crescent (qqv) and Nos 15 and 17 Beauchamp Hill (qv) with its series of full-height bows is best seen from the rear (or garden) facade. (Cave LF: Royal Leamington Spa Its History and Development: Chichester: 1988-: 39; Warwick County Record Office (an archive teaching unit): The Rise of Leamington Spa: A Century of Growth 1783-1886).

Listing NGR: SP3135066223