21 Mercer Street

Terraced house, late C17, restored and in part remodelled 1983-5 by the Terry Farrell Partnership as part of the regeneration of Comyn Ching Triangle. To the rear is the parapet wall and railings forming the boundary between the properties and Ching Court. MATERIALS: the front elevation has a timber ground floor, painted black, and rendered and painted upper floors, the rear of the house is in stock brick; it has weather-boarded mansards with pantiled roofs. To the rear are masonry parapet walls, steel railings and balustrades.

The scale, forms and palette of materials and colours used in the new work complement and provide both a unifying identity and new vitality to the scheme, where traditional materials are interpreted in a forward-thinking way.

PLAN: three-storey house with added or rebuilt attics and basement, in two bays with the entrance to the right.

EXTERIOR: the ground floor was restored or recreated as a shopfront by Farrell. It is of timber, with blind panels alternating with two-over-four pane sashes, with simple pilasters framing the outer bays, and a six panel door to the right, all beneath a plain fascia and cornice, in the centre of which is Farrell's number plate. The upper floor windows are set near flush, in late C17 or early C18 manner, beneath cambered or segmental arches. On the first floor they have six-over-six pane sashes and on the second floor three-over-six panes. Casement or fixed light windows in the mansard roof are set back behind a shallow plain parapet.

REAR: the rear has six-over-six pane and four-over-four pane sashes in exposed boxes beneath segmental brick arches, the smaller windows lighting the stairwell. The mansard has three small-paned casements. The 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 are set on the parapet wall. The seat is flanked by a pair of cherry trees, accentuating the oriental character of aspects of the Court.

INTERIOR: not seen.

NOTE: The mapping of the rear parapet walls and railings is not drawn to scale.