37-40, LEE CRESCENT B15

These are a pair of tunnel back houses, numbers 37 to 40 Lee Crescent, dating back to around 1830. They are part of an irregular terrace of ten houses, numbers 31 to 40, in the Edgbaston area. Numbers 37 and 38 are slightly higher on the hillside. The houses are good examples of the tunnel back design, which uses a layout to create the appearance of a more substantial, symmetrical three-bay facade. Each pair has a single window on each floor to the left and right of a central entrance. The windows are revealed, with glazing bars arranged as squat, 2x4 panes on the top floor. They have stucco sills and heads resting on Tuscan capital stops, with cornices below the ground and first floors. The houses have shallow moulded eaves cornices and low-pitched gable-end slate roofs with brick chimney stacks and ornamental pots. Each pair has a central passage entrance designed to look like a main doorway. This entrance is set within an antis under a semi-circular arch constructed of rubbed brick. The entrance to numbers 37 and 38 features a six-panel door within a reveal framed by slender wooden Tuscan columns, a reeded string, a frieze, and a projecting cornice; the lunette fanlight above is glazed with a geometric pattern. The entrance to numbers 39 and 40 is similar but with delicately fluted, flattened columns, and the lunette fanlight cornice has a swagged radial glazing pattern. The actual house doors face each other halfway down the tunnel passage and are linked by a semi-circular cross vault with a panelled soffit. Doorway details repeat those of the passage entrances, with the same coupled columns. The fanlights above these doors are blind. The property is a well-preserved and important example of tunnel back housing, once common in the city.