8-11, PAKENHAM ROAD B15

These are four identical villas, numbered 8 to 11, dating from approximately 1850 to 1855. They are set close together and create a symmetrical group, with Nos 9 and 10 having linked coach houses, and Nos 8 and 11 having coach houses to the north and south respectively. Each villa is two storeys high and features a three-bay, stucco-faced front with Italianate detailing. The houses have a plinth and rusticated quoins. Above the first floor is an applied parapet, a frieze with dogtooth metopes alternating with console brackets, and a flat, slate roof with corniced chimney stacks. The first floor windows are set within architrave surrounds with small profiled consoles and are treated differently; the central window has a pediment, while the outer windows have blind, floral, circle-panelled balustrades. The ground floor windows are large, set in panelled architraves with projecting sills supported by consoles, and have apron panels extending down to the plinth. Fluted console brackets support projecting cornices beneath the first floor balustrades. A large, fluted Corinthian column porch, set on three steps, has a parapet mirroring the window balustrades; it contains an archivolt arched doorway with panelled reveals and soffit, a double-panelled door, and a fanlight. No 8 has a two-storey stucco coach house with a curved swept parapet screen wall. No 11 similarly has a linked gabled coach house. The coach houses to Nos 9 and 10 are paired, sharing a hipped slate roof with flat eaves.