Numbers 1 To 14 (Consecutive) The Paragon, And Paragon Cottage And Paragon Lodge

The Paragon, Numbers 1 to 14 (consecutively), along with Paragon Cottage and Paragon Lodge, was built around 1790. It is a crescent of seven blocks, each containing two houses, and flanked by lodges to the east and west. Each house block is three storeys high, with an attic and basement, and has four windows. The buildings are topped with a hipped, slated mansard roof featuring two round-headed dormers and a central brick chimney stack.

The walls are multicoloured stock brick with dressings of Coade stone. A mutule cornice sits atop a parapet, and a fluted band runs along the first-floor window sills. Below this is a springing band of arcaded ground floor, with paterae spaced at intervals. Gauged brick arches frame recessed sash windows with glazing bars (some of which have been replaced) set within plain reveals. Upper and basement floor windows are flat-headed, while ground floor windows are round-headed within round-arched recesses that rest on a basement plinth with stone coping. The houses have slightly concave curved fronts to follow the line of the terrace. The six-panel doors are topped with cornice heads, paterae, and patterned, semicircular fanlights.

The house blocks are linked by six-bay colonnades in the Roman Doric style. These are topped by an entablature with triglyphs and mutules, and a balustrade. Wrought iron railings run between the columns and enclose the areas and entrance steps. The lodges, Paragon Cottage (east) and Paragon Lodge (west), feature stucco vermiculate quoins.

The group suffered extensive damage during World War II and has been meticulously rebuilt and restored, now functioning as flats. A plaque on number 15 commemorates a “Festival of Britain 1951 Award for Merit.” The Paragon, including the Cottage and Lodge, constitute a unified group.