14, Lansdowne Crescent

WORCESTER

SO8555NW LANSDOWNE CRESCENT 620-1/9/376 (North East side) 05/04/71 No.14

GV II

Detached house. 1840-45 with later additions and alterations. Painted stucco over brick with parapeted slate roof. Curvilinear gable parapets have integral stucco stacks with oversailing detail and some pots. Tented lead roof to verandah with wrought-iron supports and balcony balustrade. Double-depth plan with side entrance. 2 storeys and cellar. 3 first-floor windows. Stucco lined to represent ashlar, detailing includes simple plinth, end pilasters linked by plain frieze, moulded cornice, blocking course; bay window; porch to right return. Centre first-floor is glazed door to full-width balcony, 9-panes over 2 flush-beaded panels, 3-pane overlight; flanked by 8/8 sashes in plain reveals with sills. Centre ground-floor has similar glazed door with small opening section to 3-pane overlight; 2-roll edged steps; 8/8 sash to left; later 5-sided bay to right, French window with 2-panes to each leaf, overlight; 2-pane casements, some side-hung, to splay and returns; transom lights; all margin glazed. Full-width verandah on scrolled support frames with spandrel brackets; boarded ends. Verandah forms part of balcony which has a delicate scrolled balustrade. Left-return is blank unpainted render. Right-return has 6/6 sash to first-floor over Tuscan-style porch, 6-panel door, upper panels raised and fielded with bolection moulding, lower pair flush-beaded; margin glazed overlight; stone-flagged threshold. 2-pane margin-glazed side-hung casement to left of porch, 1/1 sash to right. Return continues as 2-storey rear outshut with 6/6 sash to ground and first-floors. Fenestration to rear elevation is mainly 6/6. 2-storey wing to rear north is painted brick with C20 windows and door. INTERIOR: retains original features including panelled shutters and doors, the latter with panelled reveals, architraves, skirtings, plaster cornices and ceiling centres, marble fireplaces, polychromatic ceramic floor tiles to hall; staircase has square balusters and wreathed handrail. Separate 2-storey table block to rear south is painted brick and slate. HISTORICAL NOTE: Neither bay window nor verandah shown on 1886 O.S. Map. 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. The 1886 O.S. map shows No.10 and this house (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 the City 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-).