12, Lansdowne Crescent

No. 12 Lansdowne Crescent is a detached house, originally built as two separate dwellings (Nos. 12 and 13), later converted into one residence in 1878, and subsequently into five flats. The construction dates to 1840-68, with later additions and alterations. The exterior is painted stucco over brick, with a hipped slate roof featuring wide, bracketed eaves. Brick details overhang the stucco at the ends, where stacks are topped with pots. The house has a double-depth plan and a side entrance, standing two storeys high with a cellar. It has four windows on the first floor. Stucco detailing includes a plinth, banded rustication to the ground floor with vermiculated quoins and keystones above the window heads, and a plain band below the first-floor windows, which, along with their sills, are housed in shallow recesses. Rectangular recessed panels sit between the eaves brackets with a cyma reversa profile, complemented by a porch. The first-floor windows are 2/2 sashes, while the ground-floor windows are taller 2/4 sashes extending down to plinth level, each accessed by four steps, with remaining hinges for external shutters visible. The stucco detailing continues around the side returns. The left return features a central porch in a Greek Doric style, with robust fluted columns and plain pilasters. The entrance is through a two-leaf, two-panel door with glass above a raised and fielded panel. To the left is a tall 2/1 sash extending to floor level; on the first floor, a 2/2 sash sits to the left and centre, with an external stack on a corbel bracket to the right. The right return has an upper storey similar to the left. An original central porch has been removed and the entrance infilled, with a small 20th century window inserted to the left, and a canted bay featuring 1/1:2/4 sashes and a glazed door to the right, now enclosed by a late 20th century conservatory. A two-storey brick service range exists at the rear, with the painted brick continuing the plain between-floor band from the main range in stucco, incorporating a recessed brickwork panel at eaves. The windows here are 2/2 sashes. The interior retains some original features reflecting both its conversion from a semi-detached house in 1878, and later conversion to flats; these include panelled doors and shutters, skirtings and architraves, and plaster cornices. The porch and bay window on the right return were shown on the 1886 Ordnance Survey map. Due to the elevated position, vehicular access originally only occurred from the east via Lansdowne Crescent Lane, introducing formality to the rear elevation, as evidenced by the 1886 Ordnance Survey map, which shows Nos. 10 and 14 having carriage drives from the west. Nos. 1-15, and 17 and 18 Lansdowne Crescent form a notable group of listed buildings comparable to other developments in Worcester of the same period, such as Britannia Square, Lark Hill, and Rainbow Hill Terrace.