20-22, JESUS LANE

Two terraced houses built around 1850, numbered 20-22 Jesus Lane. They form part of the original mid-19th century terrace of four houses, with a fifth house added in the 1920s to the west. The buildings are constructed of Gault brick with slate roofs.

The houses are three storeys tall, each two bays wide, with shared axial chimney stacks. The front elevation facing the street has four windows per house, featuring twelve-paned unhorned sashes set within flat brick arches. The windows on the ground floor are modern replacements. Each house entrance is recessed under a round arch with tall brick keystones and stone imposts, separated by a window. A plat band runs between the ground and first floors. The rear elevation shows a regular pattern of windows alternating between mezzanine-level windows serving the stairwells and floor-level windows lighting the rooms. Most of the original unhorned sashes remain on this elevation.

The interiors contain open string staircases with stick balusters, ramped and volute handrails, and turned newel posts. The houses retain ornate cast iron fireplaces, deep moulded cornices, skirting boards and architraves throughout.

The terrace was originally joined to The Crown, a public house at its west end, shown on the 1888 and 1903 Ordnance Survey maps. This was demolished by 1912 when Marshall of Cambridge acquired the block, to make way for an extended garage workshop. A fifth house was subsequently built on the former Crown site, probably in the 1920s. The ground floor of the additional house and the two western 19th-century houses were later converted to a showroom for a soft furnishing store with plate glass shop windows. The workshop area contained an arcade of shops. The numbering was subsequently reorganised as 19-22, with number 19 incorporating the three western houses including the early 20th-century addition.

These two houses have group value with other listed buildings in Jesus Lane, including numbers 31, 33 and 34 (Grade II) and the Grade I listed Little Trinity.