1-5, Albert Square SW8

This is a symmetrical terrace of houses at 1-5 Albert Square. Built in the 18th century, the terrace is arranged in a group of one, three, and one houses. Each house is two or three windows wide and has three and a half storeys. The exterior is red brick with hipped slate roofs. Decorative stucco dressings include quoins and incised detailing to the ground floor and basement. A prominent feature is the banded panels and entablature, which includes a dentil cornice in places, supported by pilasters and engaged columns. A further entablature with a modillion cornice and curved brackets is found at the third floor level, while a smaller cornice sits at the second floor level and a top cornice has a blocking course. Most windows are sash windows with glazing bars, set within moulded architraves, and feature console bracketed cornices on the first floor. Numbers 1 and 5 have projecting square bays, and the grouped first floor windows are set beneath a central pediment, which is also featured centrally within the group. All doors, along with the ground floor windows of the houses between, are round-arched, with an impost string. Balustrades surround the areas and the sides of the flights of six steps leading to the four-panel doors, which each have a plain fanlight above.