Shaftesbury Park Estate

The Shaftesbury Park Estate comprises numbers 37 to 71 (odd) and 38 to 72 (even) along Elsley Road, SW11. Dating to 1873 and designed by Robert Austin, this is the central section of a terraced street, punctuated by prominent towered features at either end. The houses are two storeys and two bays wide, constructed of yellow brick with stone and red/darker brick dressings, and slate roofs. Pairs of houses with towers are mirror images; for example, numbers 41 and 43 face numbers 42 and 44, and numbers 66 and 68 mirror numbers 65 and 67. The eastern pairs mirror the western pairs. On each “eyecatcher” house within a pair, the principal bay projects significantly from the street line, sheltering the remainder of the pair from the street’s end. The ground floor of these projecting bays features a double sash window with a bracketed sill, a central mullion with engaged colonnettes, and a relieving arch above the lintol. First-floor twin sash windows feature bracketed sills and blind pointed-arch heads within gauged brick arches. The bay extends above the main eaves line into a square tower with a bracketed cornice, topped by a slate-hung square spire. In the interior angle formed by the tower, each pair has a Gothic-style porch supported by corbels and coupled colonnettes with coupled pointed arches, beneath a gable displaying the estate monogram and the date 1873. The second house of each pair has a ground-floor double sash window mirroring its partner, but lacking the relieving arch. The first floor features twin sash windows with bracketed sills and moulded lintols beneath bracketed eaves. The remaining houses are paired, with porches echoing those of the eyecatcher houses, or simpler coupled pointed arch door surrounds flanked by double sash windows. First-floor windows throughout are twin sash with bracketed eaves. The chimney stacks have cogged cornices and oversailing courses.