1 and 3, Victoria Rise

House dating from around 1853, with later alterations including conversion to three dwellings.

This is a detached double-fronted brick house of two storeys with a basement and attic, the latter partially concealed behind a balustraded parapet. The house displays many features characteristic of its 1850s date. The central doorway features a Doric portico with square columns and a moulded entablature that carries a large 'attic' rising to meet the surround of the first-floor window. The ground-floor windows are replaced sashes with pedimented lintels supported by console brackets; the upper-floor windows retain their original sashes and have moulded surrounds. Encaustic tiles adorn the steps leading to the original door.

A two-storey extension, now numbered 1 Victoria Rise, has a garage on the ground floor and a flat above.

The interior remains largely intact in plan and detail, retaining several original features: a staircase with metal balustrade and polished timber handrail; cornices with egg-and-dart and garland mouldings; dado panelling in the hall and stairwell; two fireplaces with timber mantel shelves; and numerous original doors, dado rails and skirting boards. Several handsome marble fireplaces in the principal rooms were inserted in the late 20th century, salvaged from houses of similar style and date. The basement retains its original hearth opening and cellars with original storage bins.

The villa dates from around 1853 and is the sole survivor of a row of similar houses, the remainder demolished in 1966. Victoria Rise, originally called Victoria Road, was laid out on the site of a 18th-century villa by Henry Flitcroft known as The Wilderness, built for banker Henry Hoare. The house appears on Edward Stanford's map of London of 1862 as the end house in a row of five on the western side of Victoria Rise. The remainder of the street and Cedars Road running parallel were developed by the time the First Edition Ordnance Survey map was published in 1874.

A two-storey extension was added to the south of 3 Victoria Rise shortly after construction, certainly by 1874. It may originally have served as a coach-house, though fragments of cornice suggest it was used as accommodation. This extension is now a flat known as 1 Victoria Rise.

The building is of special architectural interest as a handsome, largely intact house of around 1853. It is the remaining villa in a road of detached villas laid out circa 1853 on a plot formerly occupied by Henry Flitcroft's 18th-century villa. It is distinguished by its restrained façade representing a continuation of the previous century's taste for simple, well-proportioned residences, whilst its Doric portico and pedimented windows point to the emerging fashion for Italianate features in the mid-Victorian period. The house has a good interior with surviving staircase, dado panelling, cornices and two simple fireplaces. It compares favourably with other listed houses of this date and has group value with 43-47 and 48-52 Clapham Common North Side, formerly The Cedars—two terraces of houses in French Renaissance pavilion style dating to 1860.