Numbers 4-28 And Attached Railings

Terraced houses, circa 1824, possibly designed by Amon Wilds and Charles Augustin Busby. The square is laid out on a U-shaped plan comprising three distinct architectural sections.

The side units (Nos 4-12 and 20-28) are of identical design, each with 4 storeys over basement and 3 windows. They are reached by steps up to a round-arched entry with fanlight. The ground floor is rusticated. To the side of the entrance is a segmental bay with tripartite, flat-arched windows. A verandah with cast-iron railings, brackets and stanchions runs to the first floor; in the centre of the verandah is another segmental bay, also with tripartite, flat-arched windows but on a different axis and broader than the one below. The bays have convex roofs and the verandah has a lean-to roof of metal. All windows are flat-arched. A cornice and blocking course crown the elevation.

Most of these units are rendered in stucco, except Nos 16 and 20, which have rough cast, and Nos 6-8 and 10-12, which display a stucco basement, first floor and cornice with brick in Flemish bond and gauged brick lintels to the first and second floors.

Individual features include decorative glazing to fanlights of Nos 7-8 and 23-25; banded rustication to No.22; doors of original design to Nos 4, 25, and 28; a storey band between second and third floor of No.5; a cornice to second floor windows of No.10. Original sashes survive to various locations: ground floor of Nos 11 and 23; first-floor bay of Nos 6-8, 11, 23-24, and 27; second floor of Nos 6, 11, 23-24, 26 (top sashes only), and 27; third floor of Nos 6, 11, 23-24, and 27. The verandahs are gone from Nos 12, 26, and 27.

Nos 9, 22, and 28 have been extensively remodelled in the mid to late 19th century. No.9 features a full-height canted bay with tripartite, flat-arched windows replacing the original segmental bays; the verandah has a hipped roof. To the left of the bay on the second and third floors is a flat-arched, blocked window with floating cornice supported by console brackets. A storey band separates the second and third floors. The original round-arched entrance, rusticated base, and verandah railings remain.

No.22 has narrowly banded rustication on the ground floor. The round-arched entrance has a hood moulding consisting of a modillioned cornice and volute keystone. The bay is moulded at bottom with closely spaced console brackets; fluted pilasters at its corners support brackets carrying the verandah. Two brackets over the entrance and one at the party wall are of the same design but larger. The rectangular verandah has a roof supported by wood brackets cut in a series of "C" curves, with the floor fascia ornamented by a frieze of circles. The second-floor windows are intersected by a panelled blind parapet and cornice interrupted by 3 console brackets supporting ball finials. Between the second and third floors is a storey band ornamented with fluting and bars, a pattern repeated in the third floor cornice.

No.28 has a round-arched entrance with architrave which intersects, at the springing of the arch, a horizontal band ornamented with a guilloche moulding. This band is interrupted by the bay but resumes at the far wall. A 3-storey porch rises from the first through the third floors, rectangular in plan, with cast-iron railings and stanchions in an interlace pattern.

No.12A is a mid to late 19th century insertion with flat-arched entry and 4 storeys over basement. All units have stacks to party walls and railings to stairs and areas.

The centre range comprises 7 houses treated as a bilaterally symmetrical composition. The central unit, No.16, has 3 windows; the end units have one broad window each; the units between centre and ends have 2 windows each. Each unit has 4 storeys and an attic over half basement. The wider centre unit is treated as a projecting pavilion framed by giant Tuscan pilasters to the first and second floors. The end units project further forward than the centre, and between them runs a continuous Doric colonnade forming a porch to the ground floors of all and a verandah above. The Doric columns are paired at the line of the party walls, leaving a large space in front of the ground-floor windows of the intermediate units. Separate first-floor verandahs serve the end pavilions. Only the verandah of Nos 18-19 preserves the original cast-iron brackets, railings and stanchions; the rest have been enclosed by 20th century glazing.

The ground floor has banded rustication, becoming voussoirs and keystones over each round-arched entrance with fanlight, reached by a short set of stairs. Sill bands run to second floor windows. A continuous entablature spans between third floor and attic; entablature and blocking course crown the attic. All windows are flat-arched. To the left of end units are flat-arched tripartite windows with a keystone in the centre of the lintel.

Individual features of the centre range include decorative glazing to the fanlight of No.18; a projecting sill and cast-iron window guard to the ground floor of No.19; and sashes of original design to the first-floor French doors of the end units.

The interior was not inspected.

The entire Marine Square (Nos 4-28 consecutive) forms a most important group with Nos 111-119 (consecutive), 122-133 (consecutive), and 133A Marine Parade.