38 And 39, Frederick Road B15

Nos 38 and 39 on Frederick Road, built in 1848 by J A Chatwin, are a pair of richly detailed semi-detached Italianate villas. This nearly symmetrical design features service wings set back behind screen walls, with a very narrow recessed strip marking the party wall between the three-bay fronts, each having a central break. The buildings have a plinth, an entablature, and an applied parapet over the ground floor, along with a first-floor impost string and a bed mould to the frieze, supported by console brackets that hold up the moulded boxed eaves.

They are topped with hipped slate roofs and have console-corniced stucco chimneys. The fenestration is symmetrical overall, with inner Venetian windows on the ground floor and single outer windows, which correspond to two-light arcaded inner windows on the first floor and single outer and central windows on each front. The ground floor windows are adorned with panelled pilasters, sections of entablature, and keyed archivolted arches, along with diamond panelled aprons. The smaller archivolted first-floor windows feature console imposts, while the two-light arcaded windows are flanked by panelled pilasters.

The most ornate features are found at the entrances in the central breaks of each front. Each entrance has a boldly rusticated surround with a concave return into the reveal, a large vermiculated keystone to the arch, and a notable ornate and deeply modelled shell and feather fanned motif in the lunette above the four-panel door set in a panelled reveal. No 38 includes a lower set back service way with three archivolted first-floor windows and two linking stringcourses, while the screen wall aligns with the front and has a segmental carriage arch. No 39 has a similar wing but features flat entablature first-floor windows at the front and four arched windows with a return on St James's Road, two of which are blind. The rear elevations are plain stucco with two-storey canted bays.