12, Lansdowne Crescent

WORCESTER

SO8555NW LANSDOWNE CRESCENT 620-1/9/375 (North East side) 05/04/71 No.12

GV II

Detached house, built as 2 dwellings, 12 and 13, converted in 1878 to one; now five flats. 1840-68 with later additions and alterations. Painted stucco over brick, hipped slate roof with wide, bracketted eaves; stack to each end in stucco with brick oversailing detail and pots. Double-depth plan with side entrance. 2 storeys and cellar. 4 first-floor windows. Stucco detailing includes plinth, banded rustication to ground-floor with vermiculated quoins and keystones to window heads; plain band below first-floor windows which together with their sills are housed in shallow recesses; rectangular recessed panels between cyma reversa eaves brackets; porch. First-floor windows are 2/2 sashes; those to ground-floor are tall 2/4 extending down to plinth level and each accessed by 4 steps; the hinges for external shutters remain. The stucco detailing of the front elevation is continued on the returns. Left-return: central porch in Greek Doric-style with robust fluted columns, plain pilasters; 2-leaf, 2-panel entrance door, glass over small raised and fielded panel; to left a tall 2/1 sash extending down to floor-level. On the first-floor a 2/2 sash to left and centre; to the right an external stack on corbel bracket. Right-return: upper storey similar to left return. Original central porch removed and entrance infilled, small C20 window inserted to left; to right a canted bay with 1/1:2/4 sashes and glazed door. Bay enclosed by late C20 conservatory. 2-storey service range to rear in painted brick; plain between-floor band continues from main range in stucco; recessed brickwork panel at eaves. 2/2 sashes. INTERIOR: reflects the alterations related to its 1878 conversion from a semi- to a single residence and its more recent conversion to flats but still retains some original features including panelled doors and shutters, skirtings and architraves, plaster cornices. HISTORICAL NOTE: The porch and bay window to the right return are both shown on the 1886 O.S. Map. Of similar design to No.11 (q.v.) Lansdowne Crescent. Because of their elevated position, vehicular access to these houses could only be from the east via Lansdowne Crescent Lane; this introduced a degree of formality to what would normally be the rear elevation. he 1886 O.S. map shows Nos 10 and 14 (qqv) as exceptions with carriage drives from the west off Lansdowne Crescent. Nos 1-15 (consecutive) and 17 and 18 Lansdowne Crescent (qqv) form a good group of listed buildings comparing well with other developments of this period in Worcester such as Britannia Square, Lark Hill, and Rainbow Hill Terrace (qqv). (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Worcestershire: Harmondsworth: 1968-1985: 38, 335; JM Knowles: Lansdowne Crescent Worcester to 1900: Worcester: 1988-).