Papillon House, formerly known as Provident Place, 3-14 Balkerne Gardens

MATERIALS: the facade is constructed with grey gault brick with stucco rendering to the cornice and two door surrounds, and slate covering to the roofs. The rear elevation is of late-C20 brick, partially rendered.

PLAN: a terrace of twelve dwellings; the earliest range at the centre was symmetrically arranged, comprising six units each with a two room plan and an entrance hall.

EXTERIOR: Papillon House has two-storeys and shallow hipped roofs to the east and west surmounted by some brick ridge stacks The facade faces south and has a moulded, stucco-rendered cornice; the 5th and 6th bay, and 10th and 11th bay, project forward slightly under a stucco-rendered pediment atop pairs of plain, brick pilasters. The ground floor windows and door openings are arched with segmented brick heads. The window openings are recessed except in the pedimented bays; here the door openings are straight-headed with a stucco render surround comprising pilasters with moulded capitals beneath a slightly projecting flat hood. The first floor window openings have straight, segmented brick heads; the sash windows have three-over-six lights. All of the entrance doors and approximately half of the windows are C20 replacements.

The late-C20 rear elevation has full-height, staggered projecting bays and pent-roofed storage facilities; shared entrances are accessed by ramps with handrails. The rear elevation has no architectural interest.

INTERIOR: the interiors of three flats were inspected. The earliest plan-form of the dwellings has been removed by late-C20 remodelling which included the insertion of shared lobbies and stairways and the creation of one-bedroom apartments. The room divisions of the flats are generally late-C20 inserted partitions and there are no C19 fixtures and fittings remaining, including fireplaces and joinery. Fragmentary elements of the historic structure remain, including the principal east-west wall, some cross-walls and, on the first floor, some chimney stacks, but the interior is extensively altered and does not possess special interest.