Including Garden Railings To South

A terrace of six houses built in 1858 for John Henry Gurney, who owned the Catton Hall Estate. The houses are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with a slate roof and brick ridge stacks. Each house has a lobby-entrance leading to rooms on either side.

The exterior is two storeys high with a ten-window range. The south front is symmetrical, with each house presenting a symmetrical two-window range. Each house features a central timber doorcase with a flat hood and a four-panelled door. There is one three-light mullioned casement window to each floor on both sides, with splayed reveals and gauged skewback arches. A platband runs along the first floor, and a dentil eaves cornice sits below the hipped roof. The ridge stacks consist of four square flues, decorated with bricks made by Guntons of Costessey. A rectangular plaque inscribed "J H G 1858" is on the front of No. 52. The rear elevation has plank doors to each house and two-light casement windows, all under segmental gauged arches.

Inside, the houses have four-panel internal doors. The ground-floor front rooms have timber fire surrounds with cast-iron inserts, and coving to the ceilings. Winder staircases link the front and rear ground-floor rooms. The kitchens at the rear retain some original features, including a water kettle and grate. A pantry opens off the kitchen. First-floor rooms have mid-19th century cast-iron basket grates within plain timber fire surrounds.

The cast and wrought iron garden railings define the property boundaries and run along the street elevation. They feature circular vertical bars passing through plain top, bottom, and centre rails, terminating in braced standards capped with fleur-de-lis finials. The gates have heavy circular standards and shallow baluster finials, with hinged gates featuring circular verticals, plain rails, and opposing scrolled braces.

This imposing terrace, built in 1858, reflects a style and scale more common in towns than villages. The lobby-entrance plan for each house is a unique feature, believed to be the only example in a similar terrace in Norfolk. The railings combine commercially produced castings with work likely made in the estate's blacksmith's shop. The terrace is part of a group with Hall Farm Barn and the Village Hall, situated directly opposite.

The history of the terrace is documented in Manning, I.M., A History of Old Catton, Norwich, 1989.