Model Cottages

Model Cottages, built in 1856 and designed by H. Roberts at the request of Prince Albert for the Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring Classes, were originally four flats but have been altered to three. The cottages are constructed of plum brick with white brick dressings and feature a slate roof. They stand two storeys high with a four-window front, where the ends project slightly. The ground floor on the right has an original three-light timber casement in a reveal, while the outer bays have 20th-century replacements. In the center, there is a tall recess with a renewed head, and the entrances are located in the inner return walls, with the right entrance featuring an original Gothic door. The ground floor originally had three two-light casements, with the right now serving as an entrance. The first floor has two original two-light casements in reveals, and all openings are framed with white brick surrounds and slightly cambered gauged brick heads. The building has white brick quoins and triangulated string courses over the ground floor, at the first-floor sill level, and below the parapet, which steps up over the outer bays and features central rendered medallions and finials, with a double step up to the center. There are end stacks with quadruple shafts, and the right end is roughcast. The rear has three gables, with two original tall casements on the rear right, and later gabled wings extending to the rear center and left, with a quadruple stack at the rear center. The interior has not been inspected. The first Model Cottage was showcased at the Great Exhibition of 1851, intended as a prototype for larger blocks of flats.