19, Knight Street

This is an early 19th century, well-proportioned stucco-fronted Regency house, reputedly dating from 1800-1810, with a rear section added approximately 20 years later. It is constructed with a timber frame and stucco facing, imitating ashlar, and extends over three storeys and a cellar, with a three-window front. A parallel three-storey rear range, of similar construction but slightly lower, is also present. Both ranges have hipped slate roofs of a low pitch, featuring panelled plastered soffits to the broad eaves overhang and decorative brackets spaced to correspond with the window pattern. The windows are flush-sash, with moulded architraves; the central windows have 6/6 panes, while the outer windows are wider with 8/8 panes. A single-storey, projecting porch, stuccoed with a plinth and dentilled cornice, fronts the house, with a six-panel front door featuring fielded panels. A circa 1900 single-storey, flat-roofed billiard room, stuccoed and set back on the north side, and a discreet modern building on the south side are also present.

The garden front (east) mirrors the three-window pattern, with 4/4-paned outer sash windows and a 3/3-paned central sash window on the second floor. The first floor features a three-light mullioned and transomed casement outer window, but lacks a central window. Full-height triple sash windows are on the ground floor, with French windows leading to a study and the billiard room set back on the north side. A central, round-headed doorway is glazed with margin lights and topped with a scallop-pattern fanlight.

Internally, the house is arranged with four rooms per floor, and features internal gable chimneys. A central staircase, with a passage behind, connects the floors, characterized by unequal floor levels between the front and rear sections on the upper floors. The entrance hall boasts a dentilled cornice with reeding around the ceiling, enriched by small, superimposed square panels with swirling paterae in a modillion-like style. A fine, freestanding staircase in the cellar is supported on coupled octagonal columns and rises in a double curve to the upper landing, without central support. It has a cut string, a mahogany rail, and simple stick balusters with a similar dentilled plaster cornice on the upper part. The doors are generally six-panelled, with planted mouldings. The library on the ground floor northeast room features a coved cornice, a grey marble fire surround with incised panels and roundels, and panelled window shutters acting as sliding doors that retract into the jambs, running on a floor rail concealed beneath a hinged board. Pedimented overdoors are found above the first-floor rooms, with slightly later examples in the rear rooms. The southeast bedroom is particularly elaborate, featuring a light grey marble fire surround with a moulded architrave and scrolled brackets supporting the shelf. A plainer marble surround is in the northeast room. The building was formerly known as Hillfield House and later Knights Hill, and has undergone relatively few alterations, retaining many high-quality interior features.