5, Britannia Square

This is a villa dating to around 1820, with later additions and alterations. It is constructed of painted stucco over brick, with a hipped slate roof. A stucco chimney stack with cornice detail is visible at the right gable end, and there are two similar stacks on the roof slopes of the central rear wing, one with decorative pots. The villa features full-height stone bay windows and a ferrous balustrade to a balcony.

The design is of a double-depth, T-plan with a recessed central entrance and hallway. There are two storeys and three first-floor windows facing the street. Stucco detailing includes full-height pilasters flanking the entrance and at the ends of the building, and a sill band to each side of the bays. A plain frieze, a Doric-style porch, and a door surround are located to the left of the facade. Two-storey, flat-roofed, canted bays are set to each side of the entrance. Ground-floor stonework to the bays is fluted, with plinths and capitals; the stonework to the first floor is plain, with the exception of carved panels below the sills depicting paired beasts and shields. All windows to the bays are 1/1 sashes, with tall bottom sashes to the ground floor only.

Four slate steps lead to a recessed entrance porch with square columns featuring an incised geometric design. The external doors are a pair of raised and fielded 6-panel doors with a single-pane overlight. An inner pair of glazed doors with 4 panes and margin glazing follow. The roof of the porch forms a balcony, accessible by a French window of similar design to the porch’s inner doors. The balcony balustrade has a central pair of diagonal braces flanked by vertical supports.

Smaller, single-storey wings are set back on each return elevation; the wing to the left features a French window where each leaf comprises three panes with margin glazing, and a surround with matching pilasters to the entrance porch, including an entablature and pediment. The wing to the right has 20th-century vertically boarded and glazed garage doors beneath a coped gable that mirrors the pediment's profile. A two-storey service range extends to the rear right.

A historical note indicates that an 1886 Ordnance Survey map at a scale of 1:500 shows canted bays to the front elevation.

The villa contributes to a unified group of listed buildings in Britannia Square, which was started in 1820 and planned around a large green. It is comparable to similar, though smaller, developments in Worcester such as Lansdowne Crescent, Lark Hill, and Rainbow Hill Terrace.