Taylor House

Taylor House is a house built in the early to mid-19th century, extended in the mid-19th century, and subsequently divided into two properties in the late 19th century. Number 160 is now used as offices.

The main front and chimneys are constructed of white brick, with red brick used for the returns and extensions, all covered by a slate roof. The house has a square two-storey main block, extended to the north, with a smaller two-storey block attached to the south and a single-storey block to the rear.

The principal front is of a simple classical design, two storeys high and faced in white brick. The original block is three windows wide, featuring brick pilasters at the ends of the elevation and a central half-glazed door within a timber doorcase and a hood. A one-window-wide extension to the left is slightly set back and features a corner pilaster constructed of artificial stone. All windows are 6-over-6 sash windows, and those on the ground floor are taller with artificial stone lintels. The original block has a gabled roof with broad eaves and ridge cresting, along with internal north and south gable-end chimney stacks on the front slope. The north front is of red brick, displaying a door with a classical timber doorcase and two external chimney stacks topped with white brick chimneys.

Number 160 contains a fine, curving open-string staircase with stick balusters (now boarded over), a scrolled handrail with an inlaid bull’s eye design, and two main ground-floor rooms featuring 6-panelled doors and simple early to mid-19th century marble fireplaces with shield motifs. A c1900 lincrusta dado with Art Nouveau poppy-head motifs adorns the staircase and landing. Number 162 houses a late Victorian open-string staircase with turned wooden balusters, and a cast iron fireplace with a register grate on the first floor.

The main block of 160-162 Norwich Road was originally built in the early to mid-19th century. By 1862, it had been extended in a matching style to the north, with subsidiary blocks added to the south and east. A map from 1862 depicts the house as a single dwelling. The 1884 Ordnance Survey map indicates subdivision of the rear garden and separate entrances at the front, signifying the division into two properties by that date. A 1904 OS map further illustrates internal subdivision into two dwellings. Number 160 was converted into a hostel in the second half of the 20th century.

The buildings are designated at Grade II for their original construction as a single house in the early to mid-19th century, the sympathetic mid-19th century extensions, the later 19th-century subdivision which retains physical interconnection between the properties, the retention of the early to mid-19th century classical front, a fine curving staircase, and principal rooms, the added interest of the later 19th century staircase conversion, and their group value with other listed buildings on Norwich Road, including numbers 156 and 158.