No 42 And 43 And Attached Wall And Piers To No 42

Nos. 42 and 43 are a pair of semi-detached houses with an attached boundary wall and piers, dating to approximately 1820, and subject to later additions and alterations. The houses are constructed of painted stucco over brick, with a hipped slate roof. The roof features renewed party and end stacks with brick oversailing courses and pots. A stucco boundary wall runs along the rear.

The architectural style is symmetrical and late Classical, and features a central pediment and full-height entrance ranges set back from each end. The houses follow a double-depth plan, with 6 first-floor windows (a 1:4:1 arrangement). Stucco detailing includes pilaster strips to the ends of the main range and to the pediment over the central two windows; the pediment's frieze is stepped towards the centre. Projecting porches have panelled pillars and entablatures. The windows are mostly 8/8 sashes to the first floor, 8/12 sashes to the ground floor, with those on the left side having roll-edged stone steps. The entrance doors have six fielded panels and fanlights with an inverted teardrop design, set within panelled reveals. The rear elevation retains 8/8 sashes within segmental arches.

Inside, original features remain, including panelled shutters and doors, doorcases with single-panel pilasters and a frieze with paterae, and fireplaces, some with cast-iron hob-grates.

To the rear of No. 42, a coped wall has two outer round-arched recesses and a central, wider cambered-arch opening with a planked door, all supported by an impost band. A pair of square gate piers have friezes and cornices topped with pyramidal caps. Single-storey outshuts project from the rear, abutting the boundary walls.

The boundary walls and gates extend for approximately 35 metres, incorporating two pedestrian entrances and two carriage entrances; the entrance to the right-hand property is flanked by piers with pyramidal caps.

Nos. 42 and 43 form a unified group with other listed buildings in Britannia Square, which was begun in 1820 and planned around a green. This development is comparable to other similar, although smaller, developments in Worcester such as Lansdowne Crescent, Lark Hill, and Rainbow Hill Terrace.