Esplanade House And Attached Railings

Esplanade House, built in 1813, is a three-storey house with attics and cellars, situated on King’s Quay Street in Harwich. Constructed of cream Gault bricks, it features a Welsh slate gambrel roof with a hipped section on the south-east end. The building includes a complex extension to the rear.

The exterior is symmetrical, with a continuous parapet and two full-height brick bows on either side. Each bow has three grouped double-hung sash windows with small panes on each floor, framed by painted timber pilasters and stone sills. The upper two floors of the central section feature double-hung sash windows with small panes, set within red rubbed brick arches with stone imposts. The central entrance has a semicircular red brick arch on stone imposts, containing an Adamesque fanlight. A six-panel door, with reeded panel mouldings and pilasters, leads to a flight of stone steps with cast-iron handrails and bootscrapers. Cellar windows are lit by double-hung sash windows, facing an area enclosed by spear-headed cast-iron railings that echo the shape of the bows. A chimney stack is situated at the north-west end of the ridgeline.

The interior plan remains largely unchanged, with a central hall leading through a semicircular-arched opening to a staircase set at a right angle. This is a cantilevered, open-well staircase featuring stick balusters and a wreathed hardwood handrail. Service stairs are located at the rear. All major rooms have reeded architraves and skirtings, and simple plaster cornices. Two curved doors with curved reeded architraves survive, potentially remnants of an earlier, unrealised design. Some rooms contain semicircular-headed recesses and cupboards with reeded surrounds. First-floor rooms have reeded door architraves with lions' heads at the intersections.