Number 2 With Raised Forecourt And Boundary Walls

MALDON

TL8407SE LONDON ROAD 574-1/6/133 (North East side) 02/10/51 No.2 with raised forecourt & boundary walls

GV II*

House, now offices. Mid to late C18. Red/brown Flemish-bond brick with rubbed brick arches, stucco ornament and cornice of eroded limestone. Square plan, plain tile roof of gambrel profile and flat top. Square plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attics. The main Gate Street front of 2 storeys with attic; symmetrical 3-window range. Plain parapet, modillioned stone cornice and 3 segmental-headed dormers, each with a 6-pane sash window. 2 rectangular projections, each with a tripartite plain sash window with stuccoed keystone at 1st-floor level; the ground floors of each projection have similar windows, but recessed beneath a semicircular arch and with large fleshy honeysuckle motif in painted stucco; painted stucco impost band. The recessed centre has a narrow plain sash window with keystone over an open-pedimented Doric doorcase with triglyphs over pilasters; plain semicircular fanlight and recessed door with 4 raised-and-fielded panels over 2 flush panels. The north-west garden front is similar, but dormers have casements and windows have small panes. In place of the ground floor tripartites are small-paned Venetian windows and central, deeply recessed door has rectangular fanlight of Gothick-style intersecting glazing bars. The London Road front has 2 tall stacks behind parapet and broad projecting centre with, on the 1st floor, 3 small-paned sash windows flanked by blind recesses; the ground floor is similar but with central open-pedimented doorcase with recessed narrow door of 3 flush panels in panelled reveals. The north-east front has 2 projecting stacks (one truncated) and a small-paned sash window on 1st floor. INTERIOR: central hall is gained from Gate Street and this has semicircular rear arch with keystone and moulded capitals. Dogleg staircase, to the left, is the most elaborate of its type in Maldon; column-on-vase balusters, column newel and hardwood handrail and with fretwork shaped tread ends; a string band beneath tread ends has fretwork frieze with quatrefoils and interlace. An archway to the Gate Street door is framed in similar fretwork with lattice pilasters and ornamental keystone. All ground-floor rooms have plaster

cornices and original doors and architraves. 2 front rooms have marble fireplaces and a rear room has an eared architraved fireplace. A similar fireplace in the 1st-floor south-east room and semicircular arch on the upper-floor landing. Service staircase with crossed balusters. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: raised forecourt to Gate Street frontage, curved into London Road, with red-brick retaining wall and stone coping with remnants of former chain railings. 2 flights of stone steps to main door substantially repaired. High red-brick garden wall to London Road, linked to lower wall in front of house and wrought-iron railing to flank entrance.

Listing NGR: TL8478207028