St Oswald'S And Attached Walls

WORCESTER

SO8455NE BRITANNIA SQUARE 620-1/8/108 (East side) 22/5/54 No.53 St Oswald's and attached walls (Formerly Listed as: BRITANNIA SQUARE (East side) No.53 St Oswald's Lodge)

GV II

Villa now school, with boundary walls attached at rear and at left. c1820 with later additions and alterations. Painted stucco over brick, coped curvilinear end-gables with stucco stacks, further stack to rear; reddish-brown brick range at right, slate roofs. Brick boundary walls with ashlar dressings. Double-depth plan with central hallway; later service wing to rear and further range to rear right. 2 storeys and attic, 3 first-floor windows. Stucco detailing includes plinth, Tuscan pilasters to ends and between windows surmounted by frieze, cornice and blocking course. Shell and fan motif over ground-floor windows. First-floor has outer 8/8 and central 6/6 sashes. Ground-floor has tall 8/12 sashes in taller round arched reveals. Flight of 4 roll-edged steps to central Doric-style porch with 2 pairs of columns and engaged pilasters with entablature and blocking course; six-panel door, upper panels raised and fielded, flush lower panels, the whole within fluted surround with fleurons to 'capitals'. Fanlight with circle and teardrop motif. Attic roof dormer has 2/2 sash. Right-return has 6/9 sash with radial glazing to head. 6/6 sash in gable and further 8/8 sash to first-floor. Range at right-angles to rear right has 6/6 sash and three-light window with flat arches of red rubbed brick; hipped slate roof. Left return has similar pilasters to ends and between windows; 3/6 sash to gable with further 6/6 and 8/8 sashes. Rear has 10/15 sash and tripartite window 6/6 between 2/2. INTERIOR noted as having original joinery including panelled shutters. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES:: boundary walls to Upper Tything. Walls to NW side of garden returning to SE along Back Walk for approx 8 metres, then abutting service range and continuing to Back Walk for approx 8 metres, then returning (with curved angle) to Upper Tything for approx 10 metres. Double plank gates abut service range with pilaster at left. Pedestrian entrance to rear (Upper Tything) has 5-panel door with fanlight with decorative radial glazing, in Gibbs-type surround, keystone with corbel bracket and continuous dentil cornice; otherwise wall to Upper Tything approx. 2.5 metres high and with modillion cornice. Otherwise garden wall approx 2.5 metres high has 2 pedestrian entrances with segmental arches. Rear walls to Nos 49-53 (qv) fronting Back Walk form a continuous original feature of the streetscape. All the listed buildings in Britannia Square (qv) form a unified group, started in 1820 and planned around a large green in which the main house is placed ('Springfield', qv). Compares with similar, although smaller, developments in Worcester such as Lansdowne Crescent, Lark Hill, and Rainbow Hill Terrace (qqv). (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Worcestershire: Harmondsworth: 1968-1985: 334).