25 and 27 Mercer Street

A pair of terraced houses dating from the late 17th century, restored and partly remodelled between 1983 and 1985 by the Terry Farrell Partnership as part of the regeneration of Comyn Ching Triangle. To the rear, a parapet wall and railings form the boundary between the properties and Ching Court.

The street elevations are constructed in brown brick, each with a timber ground floor shop front. The rear elevations are built in stock and red brick, with weather-boarded mansards topped by pantiled roofs. The rear also features rendered basement levels, masonry parapet walls, steel railings, balustrades and window guards. The scale, forms and material palette of the new work complement the existing structures while providing a unifying identity and new vitality to the scheme, with traditional materials interpreted in a forward-thinking manner.

Number 25 is three storeys with an attic and basement, laid out in two bays with the door positioned to the right. Number 27 is four storeys, with an attic storey added in the 19th century, plus a basement. The ground floor shop front at No 25 features a small centrally placed three-over-six pane sash window set into a panelled frame with simple pilasters framing the outer bays, and a four-panelled door set back to the right beneath a slightly projecting upswept cornice, part of which appears to be historic fabric. The number plate sits centrally on the cornice. The upper floors have near-flush sashes with exposed boxes beneath brick segmental arches in late 17th or early 18th century manner, with six-over-six and three-over-six panes. The attic floor is weather-boarded beneath a pantiled mansard roof with flush windows containing small pane casements or fixed lights. A four-sided lantern on a metal bracket is mounted at first floor level.

Number 27's ground floor shop front contains a pair of small two-over-four pane sashes set into a panelled frame with simple pilasters framing the outer bays, and a four-panelled door set back to the right under a shallow bracketed cornice and plain fascia, with the number plate positioned centrally. The first and second floors have near-flush sashes with exposed boxes beneath segmental arches in late 17th or early 18th century manner, with six-over-six panes. The upper floor has recessed sashes.

Both properties feature tall external brick stacks to the right-hand side of the rear elevation. Number 25 has small two-over-four and three-over-six pane sashes in exposed boxes beneath brick segmental arches, with the narrower left-hand windows lighting the stairwell. The mansard is weather-boarded with three small paned windows. Number 27 has varied fenestration including a full-height small-paned window opening onto an elaborate enclosed steel balcony formed of a small gauged grid, echoing metalwork elsewhere in Ching Court. The rear area is enclosed by a tubular steel rail on a moulded masonry parapet wall, into which a rococo timber seat is built to the rear of No 23 Mercer Street. The rails have panels with Farrell's reversed CC insignia for Ching Court, and his added planters sit on the parapet wall. The seat is flanked by a pair of cherry trees, accentuating the oriental character of aspects of the Court.

The interiors were not inspected.