21-37, RANSTON STREET

This is a range of model cottages located at 21-37 Ranston Street, Lisson Grove, Westminster, built around 1895. They were designed by Elijah Hoole for Octavia Hill and remain owned by the Octavia Housing Trust. The cottages are constructed of red brick, with the upper portions rendered and clad in hung clay tiles. They feature wooden sash windows and plank doors, with tiled pitched and gabled roofs and brick chimneys.

The cottages at Nos. 32-37, named 'Almond Cottages', consist of six cottages, each with a gable facing Ranston Street. Each has three tall sash windows on the first floor, a tile-hung mid-section, and a ground-floor window offset by a side plank door and overlight. Brick party walls separate the gables, and brick chimneys are located behind.

Nos. 31-27, named 'Hawthorne Cottages', is another range of five cottages with gables facing Ranston Street. The end and central gables are treated as dormers, featuring three square window lights. Other gables have a single central light. They have three short sashes on the first floor and three tall sashes on the ground floor, each offset by a side plank door and overlight. Brick party walls and chimneys are present.

Nos. 21-26 display a different design, with a five-part facade facing Ranston Street, with advanced end and central bays. The central section has a pedimented, rendered gable featuring a pair of 12-light sashes above similar windows, with the window to the left grouped with an 8-pane sash. Connecting wings each have two entrances flanked by 6-pane lights and a pair of 12-pane sashes on the ground floor, and a 12-pane sash and a pair of 12-pane sashes on the first floor. The end bays have a tripartite window on the first floor with 8/12/8 pane sashes, above a pair of 12-pane sashes with outside doors and a paned overlight. All ground floor openings are beneath gauged red brick lintels.

The interiors remain uninspected.

Nos. 31-27 and Nos. 21-26 retain individual small front yards with iron railings. Ranston Street is paved with granite sets and has large cut granite curbing.

These cottages replaced a previous row of buildings known as 'Marylebone fever dens', formerly Charles Street, which was likely renamed in the late 1890s. A plaque between Nos. 29 and 30 indicates a build date of 1895. The history includes a reference to a sensational 1885 trial involving a young girl who lived at No.32 Charles Street. The cottages were constructed in a picturesque style favoured by Octavia Hill, reflecting her nationally important work as a housing reformer, and are valued for their group value with Nos. 5-11 on the east side of Ranston Street.