52 And 52A, Britannia Square

WORCESTER

SO8455NE BRITANNIA SQUARE 620-1/8/107 (East side) 22/5/54 Nos.52 AND 52A Holly Lodge and attached wall to rear

GV II

Villa, now 2 dwellings, with boundary walls adjoining to rear. c1820 with later additions and alterations. Painted stucco over brick with hipped slate roof, 4 stacks (2+2), front left-end and off-centre right internal rebuilt. Cast-iron balcony. Brick garden wall. Double-depth plan with central hallway. 2 storeys on basement at right. 5 first-floor windows with single-storey entrance bay at right. Central and end break forwards. Stucco detailing: end break forwards have full height pilaster strips to either side of windows the cornices of which are incorporated into a continuous crowning cornice; blocking course raised over pilasters with incised leaf motif and to centre raised and fielded panel, fan motif and incised upshot with scrolls to sides. Windows to break forwards have tooled architraves, those to ground-floor have pulvinated frieze and cornices; interrupted moulded first-floor band. Centre first-floor has 6-pane French window with Gothic glazing to fanlight and margin lights otherwise 6/6 sashes, taller to ground-floor, all windows in plain reveals with sills. Hinged louvred shutters to all windows with original catches. Central entrance has distyle Doric porch with engaged pilasters, frieze has triglyphs and rams heads, cornice and blocking course. Steps to entrance, 5-panel door, upper panels raised and fielded, lower panel flush; fanlight with circle and teardrop glazing bars; panelled reveals, surround of alternate plain and fluted voussoirs. Balcony over porch has ornate balusters with scrolled anthemion finials. C20 door and French windows to basement. Further entrance to right has C20 panelled door with overlight; cornice and blocking course. 2-storey service range at rear right has 6/6 sashes. Rear retains arched staircase window with radial glazing to head and 6/6/ sashes. INTERIOR: not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES:: kitchen garden wall abuts outshut to rear with elliptical arched pedestrian entrance with flush 6 panel door. Wall approximately 2.5 metres high and continues for approx. 5 metres. 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).