8, 9 and 9a, Rainbow Hill Terrace

Nos. 8, 9, and 9A Rainbow Hill Terrace are a group of three houses built around 1830-1850 as part of a terrace. The exteriors are painted stucco over brick, with a concealed roof behind a coped parapet. Decorative paired chimney stacks rise from the parapet with overhanging details and decorative pots. A wooden porch is located on the left-hand house. Wrought-iron railings are present on the entrance steps and as balconettes on the first floor.

The houses are three storeys and have an attic, featuring four windows on the first floor. The stucco is incised to resemble ashlar. Decorative details appear as arch-headed recesses above the first-floor windows, each topped with a mask and ribbed pendant shell ornamentation; a sill band runs along the building, connecting the window heads. Another band runs at eaves level. The first-floor windows are tall 6/9 sashes, with bowed lattice balconettes. The second-floor windows are 6/6 sashes. The ground-floor window on the left-hand house is a 14/8 sash with a semi-circular arched head and intersecting Gothic tracery to the upper sash. The right-hand ground-floor window is a 6/6 sash. A six-step flight of steps provides access to each house; the left-hand railings are of slender round balusters, while the right-hand are replacements. The left-hand front door is a five-panel design, with glazed upper panels, a bolection-moulded centre panel, and flush double-beaded lower panels with stepped corners; it features a fanlight with an ‘umbrella’ glazing pattern and a Tuscan-style porch with mutules. The right-hand door is also a five-panel design with raised and fielded upper panels and flush-beaded lower panels, accompanied by a three-pane overlight.

A two-storey wing, constructed around 1974 as a separate dwelling, is recessed to the right-hand return. Its roof is concealed by a parapet, which rises centrally to support a fluted urn; the stucco bands from the main elevation continue through it. The first-floor window is a 13/8 sash with a semi-circular arched head, mirroring the style of the window in the left-hand house. Ground-floor windows are 4/4 sashes within plain reveals with sills. A semi-circular headed recess with a plain tympanum is positioned to the left, with a five-panel door having raised and fielded bolection-moulded upper panels and flush-beaded lower panels, and four steps leading to the entrance.

The interior has not been inspected. Nos. 1-10 (consecutive) Rainbow Hill Terrace form a desirable grouping of listed buildings which compare favorably with other developments of the same period in Worcester, such as Britannia Square, Lansdowne Crescent, and Lark Hill.