Government House Flats And Boundary Walls

This is a large house, later converted into flats, dating from the late 18th or early 19th century. It is located on King’s Quay Street in Harwich. The building is constructed of red-brown Flemish-bond brickwork with Welsh slate hipped roofs. It has a complex L-shaped plan, incorporating a yard within the angle of the building and enclosed by a high boundary wall along King's Quay Street, extending to a garden behind St Helen's Green.

The main northeast front is two storeys high, with a plain parapet, a raised cornice band of Gault brick, and a five-window range of double-hung sash windows, each with 12 panes, stone sills, and flat, rubbed brick arches. One first-floor window has been bricked up. A contemporary, flat-roofed porch with stone steps projects from the ground floor, partially obscuring the original entrance. The original entrance is now a wide segmental window with a rubbed brick arch, and features a six-panel door with four flush panels and two glazed and narrow panelled side parts infilling a wide opening. The southeast elevation is three storeys high with dentilled brick eaves and a box gutter. The second floor has six square double-hung sash windows with rubbed brick arches. The first floor windows are similar, with five double-hung sashes and small panes. The ground floor has three double-hung sash windows, a contemporary door opening, and three small windows. A two-storey lean-to extension is attached off-centre to this front. The northwest elevation is similar to the southeast, with random placements of double-hung sash windows and doors. A rendered two-storey extension sits on the northwest corner of the front range. A single-storey wash-house is attached to the northwest corner, featuring a hipped roof, a stack, and some clay pantiles.

The interior has been subdivided, but retains a well staircase with a wreathed hardwood handrail, stick balusters, and shaped tread ends. There are many contemporary panelled doors, some with panelled architraves. The windows have internal folding shutters. Contemporary plaster cornices are interrupted by later partitions. A 19th-century fireplace with a double mantel shelf and downward tapering pilasters is found in one first-floor flat. A historical note indicates that Robert Adam designed a castle-like house for this site in 1778, intended for the local MP John Robinson. The present building is a more economical alternative, and the abrupt change in height between two and three storeys at the east corner results in upper floor windows with a partition just behind the glass, and first-floor windows concealed behind the lower parts of the upper sashes; this may be for visual reasons.