6-9, Canonbury Place

Terraced houses at Canonbury Place, probably built on the site of and incorporating parts of the central range of Sir John Spencer's late 16th-century manor house. The row now consists of two units: numbers 6–7 (a house) and numbers 8–9 (now Canonbury Children's Day Care Centre). Numbers 6–7 share some internal features with numbers 1–5, which were built by John Dawes around 1771, and both show evidence of early 19th-century alterations. Construction is of brick and stucco with slate roofs.

The former number 6 presents a separate appearance to Canonbury Place with three storeys and two bays. The ground and first floors have flat-arched recessed sash windows with original glazing bars, while the upper floor has round-arched windows. The entrance features an architrave, panelled door, deep overlight and deep cornice on consoles. A cornice sits below the second-floor sills, from which four simple pilasters run up to the parapet. The return to number 7 is stuccoed with an expressed stack.

The south elevation dates from the early 18th century, constructed of yellow brick with red brick dressings. It rises to two storeys plus dormers and comprises a six-window range with flat arches of gauged brick. A single-storey bay of two windows, probably from the 19th century, projects from the west end. A late 18th-century lead rainwater-head survives. A band runs between ground and first floors and above the first floor; plain red brick pilasters occupy either end of the elevation, and a parapet crowns the top. The rear elevation facing Alwyne Place contains stretches of plum-coloured brick in English bond and one casement window facing north, possibly of 16th-century date.

The former number 7 comprises the four southern bays of the main north-south range of buildings, while numbers 8–9 make up the remainder. This section rises to three storeys. The southern part, beneath three large contiguous gables, appears to be 18th-century with five bays of flat-arched recessed windows with sashes on the ground and first floors (some original) and casements in the gables. At the north end of this section stands a battlemented porch with pointed-arched windows to either side, diagonal buttresses, and a blocked front entrance. The northern part, appearing early 19th-century, features scattered flat-arched windows with casements, a flat-arched entrance, and at its north end a semi-circular embattled single-storey bay with drip-moulds over three windows. The rear elevations of numbers 7–9 facing Alwyne Place include a three-storey stuccoed bay towards the south with drip-moulds, blank panelling in the Tudor style and a truncated gable, plus a two-storey wing to the north with two large and one small roof dormers.

Interior of numbers 6–7: The entrance hall contains two elaborately moulded round arches facing the entrance, the right-hand one being blank. The staircase from the entrance hall features a curtail step, wreathed and ramped handrail, stick balusters and an open string decorated with scrolling ornament as seen in numbers 1–5. On the ground floor, a small cross-vaulted lobby with early 19th-century architraves to its doors gives access to the south-east room, which contains a chimneypiece partly of around 1600. This features a fireplace surround with eared architrave flanked by panelled tapering pilasters, Adam details to the frieze and a dentil cornice to the mantelshelf, which breaks forward over the pilasters. Paired columns flank the overmantel around a moulded panel and support an architrave with fluted brackets, fluted panels and dentil cornice; the upper architrave matches one at Compton Wynyates, Warwickshire. In the room north of the staircase hall stands a Tudor-arched doorway in the east wall with two roll-mouldings to the architrave and carved detail including Prior Bolton's rebus in the spandrels; the door has three-by-three moulded panels. The architrave of a higher doorway of similar date is partly preserved beside it; both were installed here in the 1950s. The north-west room on the ground floor contains a 19th-century marble fireplace with cast-iron grate and a moulded plaster cornice. The rear staircase has a curtail step, wreathed and ramped handrail and turned balusters on the ground and first floors. The principal room at the north end of the first floor features a decorative plaster ceiling dated 1599, decorated with a royal coat of arms and date in the central panel, and figures of Tarquin, Aegeria and Julius Caesar, with other classical figures in subsidiary panels. The strapwork is decorated with scrolling flowers and intervening spaces with flower sprays. The crispness of the modelling and the character of the timberwork in the roof above cast some doubt on the stated date of this ceiling. The north-west room on the first floor contains timbers stencilled to give the effect of panelling around 1600, a detail replicated in the central east room on the second floor. The south-east room on the first floor has full fielded panelling and an elaborate cornice.

Interior of numbers 8–9: Three door surrounds on the ground floor date to the late 18th or early 19th century. The staircase from ground to first floor has turned newels, stick balusters, moulded and ramped handrail and open string. The staircase from first to second floor is possibly of 16th-century date, with square corniced newel posts, closed string, vase balusters and moulded handrail. On the ground floor's east side stands a late 16th-century plaster ceiling with coved cornice, the design consisting of circles overlaid with other circles and quatrefoils, the ribs decorated with meandering foliage and the points of junction and intersection decorated with large and small pendants; the spandrels bear stylised foliage. Directly above, on the first floor, sits a similar ceiling with foliage ribs in circles, squares and chamfered rectangles, the spaces filled with emblems, figures of heroes and foliage sprays, one panel bearing the date 1599. On the west side lies a smaller room with a ceiling of similar date, the foliage ribs arranged in a pattern of lozenges, segments and squares with emblems and sprays; this ceiling is now incomplete.