Numbers 185-191 And Attached Railings To Numbers 185 And 189

Numbers 185 to 191 North Gower Street form a terrace of five houses, incorporating number 183 within number 185. The houses date from the 19th century. They are constructed of darkened brick with rusticated stucco to the ground floors. The buildings are four storeys high with basements. Each house has two windows, except number 185, which has four, originally representing two separate dwellings. Numbers 185 and 187 each have round-arched doorways with fanlights above. Numbers 189 and 191 have square-headed doorways featuring fluted quarter-round columns, cornice heads, fanlights and margin lights; number 191 has a panelled door. Number 187 has a 20th-century Regency-style shopfront, while number 191 retains an original wooden shopfront, with pilasters supporting a projecting entablature with a scrolled frieze, and an altered shop window. A plain stucco band is positioned at first-floor level. The recessed sash windows are topped by gauged brick flat arches, and the first floor has continuous cast-iron balconies. Parapets top the buildings. The interiors have not been inspected. Attached cast-iron railings with pineapple and spearhead finials are present at numbers 185 and 189, bordering the areas. A historical note indicates that number 185 was once the home of Giuseppe Mazzini, the Italian patriot, as marked by a GLC plaque.