Nos 10-11 The Close

Nos 10-11 The Close are a pair of Arts and Crafts style houses designed by W Alexander Harvey and W Graham Wicks, built around 1915. The houses are constructed primarily of red brick with pale stone detailing, clay tiled roofs, and vertically hung tiles to the first floor of one section. The plan is an L-shape, with an additional rear wing extending from No. 11.

The principal facade faces south, forming a close with Nos 1-5. The long range features a centrally located, double-height porch with a door under a segmented brick arch and a window above. A small, pale stone panel engraved with the initials A.F.T. is located below the upper floor window. The easternmost bay has a first-floor section covered in vertically hung clay tiles and a window. The remaining three bays consist of two with wide ground floor windows, and a final bay with the entrance to No. 10 within a single-storey porch, set against the junction of the L-shape. This porch and the two bays have a catslide roof. Two gabled dormer windows are set within the roof, and another is above the porch on the building’s return.

At the rear of No. 10, a single arch is set within a pierced screen wall, behind a single-storey block, creating a small courtyard now enclosed by a modern garage. A similar courtyard to the side of No. 11 is enclosed by a brick wall with a porthole.

The property has five chimney stacks: one at the rear cross wing, and the remainder evenly distributed across the L-plan roof. Two are coupled star section stacks with a brick string course and dentil detail; the others are straight stacks, also featuring a brick string course and dentil detail.

Inside, the main doors lead to a small lobby with a secondary timber door opening into the hallway and a timber staircase with a surviving balustrade. Surviving elements of historic architrave remain in the hallways and leading into the ground floor rooms. The ground floor doors appear to have been replaced with modern fire doors.

A brick screen wall protrudes from the eastern end of the building, built into the main fabric and topped with hipped clay tiles. The wall has three arches, unevenly spaced, and it is believed to have been intended to adjoin another, unbuilt dwelling.