2, Albemarle Way

This is a three- or four-story terraced house, likely built around 1731-1739, and with a refronting dating to approximately 1860. The exterior is constructed of yellow brick in Flemish bond, with red brick dressings and stucco elements. The roofline is concealed by a parapet. The house presents a single-window front. The ground floor is distinguished by rusticated stucco, including a flat-arched entrance with a replacement doorcase and overlight, and a broad flat-arched window. The first-floor window is flat-arched and tripartite, featuring metal colonettes, a head of gauged red brick, and red brick dressings on either side. The second and third-floor windows are also tripartite, set within segmental arches, mirrored by heads of gauged red brick and red brick dressings. A stucco sill band runs between the second and third floors, extending to the parapet.

The interior retains several fine features. Door and window architraves, fielded panelling, and corner fireplaces are found in the back rooms throughout the house. The entrance hall is panelled and features a round arch with fluted Doric pilasters and a panelled soffit leading to the staircase. The staircase itself showcases a wreathed and ramped handrail, an intricately decorated open string, fluted principal balusters and a unique design of column-on-vase balusters with iron-twist embellishments, extending as far as the second floor. A panelled dado runs along the staircase. A stone cantilevered staircase is present, with decorative moulding on the underside of the return flight between the ground and first floors.

The ground-floor rooms have been combined, featuring a moulded cornice to the front section and a dentil cornice to the back. A simple wooden fireplace with a keystone and cast-iron grate is situated in the front section. In the first-floor front room, paneling finishes a meter short of the building’s front, and decorative egg-and-dart moulding enhances the paneling. A fine wooden chimneypiece with superimposed pilasters, an elaborately panelled overmantel, and a cast-iron grate are present. The overmantel is from a previous structure dated approximately 1700, and was likely incorporated by subsequent owners. The first-floor back room has a blocked fireplace with an eared surround. The second-floor front room also has paneling ending a meter short of the front, along with a moulded cornice and an Adam-style fireplace surround with a cast-iron grate. The second-floor back room is also panelled, with a moulded cornice. Elaborate eared architraves, overdoors with a pulvinated frieze decorated with bay leaf ornament and open pediments, and panelled doors are found throughout, with architraves originally dating to approximately 1765 and exhibiting the style of William Kent. The house was the residence of architects James and Henry Carr from 1800 to 1824, and it is probable that they installed the circa 1700 chimneypiece and the circa 1765 doorcases.