2, Highfield Road B15

This is an Italianate villa, built around 1855. It’s a substantial, five-bay building with a stucco exterior, standing two tall storeys high to the front, with three storeys visible in the gable ends. The central entrance bay is slightly recessed. The facade features a plinth and a rusticated arcade on the ground floor, rising to an impost string. Above this is a first-floor entablature with a panelled frieze, the cornice projecting forward to serve as sills for the first-floor windows. The main frieze is moulded with long panels of rosettes, and a moulded cornice runs across the front, supported by decorated brackets over the central recess, topped by a blocking course. The roof is slate, with a corniced stucco chimney on the south side. The ground-floor windows are set within an archivolt arched arcade, with moulded bases to the piers where they rise from the plinth. The impost moulding extends over the doorhead, echoing the keystone arch over the fanlight. The entrance features double-panelled doors. Sash windows have arched glazing bars and plate glass; the first-floor windows have panelled architrave surrounds with corner blocks and cornices. The sides of the villa have the first-floor entablature extending, with scrolled volutes supporting pairs of external chimney breasts. A first-floor window on the north side has the same frame as those on the front, with a segmental pediment. A screen wall relating to a former coach house and yard entrance extends to the south.