Nos 4-5 The Close

Nos 4-5 The Close

A pair of semi-detached Arts and Crafts style houses designed by W Alexander Harvey and W Graham Wicks, built between 1911 and 1913. The houses are constructed primarily of red brick with pale stone detailing and clay tiled roofs.

Each dwelling is L-plan in form, comprising a long range with a projecting gabled range. The two houses are connected by brick screen walls topped with hipped clay tiles and featuring unevenly spaced arches. These screen walls are built into the fabric of the adjacent buildings.

The front elevation of the long range contains four bays with an off-centre door beneath a gabled timber porch providing entrance to one dwelling. The entrance to the second dwelling is located at the corner of the long range and projecting gable end, within a single storey porch with a tiled catslide roof. Ground floor windows are set beneath either flat-headed or segmental brick arches. The projecting gable end has three ground floor windows: a large central window under a segmental brick arch flanked by two narrow windows under flat-headed arches, with a mirroring large window above it under a segmental arch. The remainder of first floor fenestration consists of four dormer windows set in tiled gables, with a single window above the main entrance on the long range.

A pale engraved stone is positioned approximately central to the junction between the two dwellings on the western block. It reads: "These houses were erected as a memorial to the life and work of Henry Stanley Newman and Mary Anna Newman on behalf of the Foreign and Home Mission Work of the Society of Friends."

The building has six chimney stacks in total, some partially external, including a mixture of straight stacks and coupled star section stacks that mirror those of the central house of the complex.

The rear elevation features a long range with a slightly projecting gabled cross wing. The long range is jettied with a segmental bay window at its far end. The terrace below the jetty has been partially infilled with modern brick, containing an entrance flanked by two windows, matching the original adjacent bay. The cross wing contains a ground floor window beneath a segmental brick arch with a smaller window above under the eaves. Four flat-roofed dormer windows are set to the long range.

Interior access to both properties is via a principal door leading to a small internal lobby, with a secondary timber door opening to the hallway. From the hallways, timber staircases with surviving balustrades lead to the first floor. Historic architrave survives in the hallways and leading into ground floor rooms. Ground floor doors have been replaced with modern fire doors.

The boundary between the two dwellings is demarcated by a timber panel and support adjacent to the infilled bay of the ground floor.