Numbers 1 To 9 And Attached Walls Piers And Railings

This terrace of houses comprises numbers 1 to 9 (consecutive) with attached walls, piers and railings. Originally built as a nine-house terrace in 1828, it was altered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Numbers 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 retain particularly notable features. The buildings are constructed of stucco and brick laid in Flemish bond. The roof of number 1 is hidden behind a parapet, numbers 2 and 4 have slate roofs, and numbers 3 and 5 to 9 have slate roofs covered in pitch.

The terrace stands three storeys over a basement with an attic level. All houses except number 1 have dormers. The plan is highly unusual: numbers 1 and 9 are positioned at right angles to Marine Parade, with number 1 set back a considerable distance from the road and featuring a circular bay at its right corner. The intermediate range, numbers 2 to 7, runs parallel to Marine Parade. Number 2's elevation is treated as a full-height and nearly full-width segmental bay. Number 8 has a concave plan that turns the corner to number 9, whose corner frontage faces directly onto Marine Parade. The overall plan forms a modified L-shape. Number 1 has a seven-window range with a corner bay of five windows; numbers 2 to 8 each have three windows; and number 9 has a seven-window range. Numbers 1 and 9, which have nearly identical entrance elevations, are the grandest in the group. Although the elevations of the other units are broadly similar, giving the whole a generally uniform appearance, each design is unique.

Number 1 is the most ambitious architecturally. The entrance was originally positioned to the left of the corner bay within a tetrastyle Doric portico, which was filled in following conversion to flats in the 20th century; the new entrance has been moved to the rear. The original entrance window range is broader than the others, with tripartite windows framed by a Tuscan tetrastyle aedicule; the attic window is tripartite with a plain architrave. Throughout the terrace, all windows are flat-arched with projecting sills. The windows in the corner bay have architraves, and those on the first and second floors have floating cornices. The bay window next to the entrance range on the first floor is blocked. To the left of the entrance range stands a full-height segmental bay of three windows; all upper-storey windows have architraves, with first and second floor windows again having floating cornices. The return continues for two windows to the left of this bay and follows the same fenestration pattern. The sills of the attic windows here and throughout the row align with the upper fascia of the second floor cornice. This cornice is one of the few features continuing across the entire terrace, interrupted only by a level change at the party wall between numbers 8 and 9. Another unifying feature is a continuous first-floor balcony beginning on the corner bay of number 1 and having cast-iron railings; these step out over each entrance porch.

The facade of number 2 is treated as a full-height and nearly full-width segmental bay. Stairs lead up to an entrance set in a distyle-in-antis porch with entablature and blocking course; the plan of the porch mirrors the curve of the bay. All entrances are flat-arched and reached by stairs, though their porches differ. The first-floor French doors have been restored since 1980. Each opening on the first and second floors has an architrave and full entablature.

Each entrance of numbers 3 and 4 is set in a prostyle porch consisting of a pair of Tuscan columns and entablature with projecting cornice. The porch of number 3 is topped by a 20th-century glazed verandah with a roof of 19th-century design. Architraves to first and second floor openings have been removed, the wall surface replaced by cement coating beyond which only the sills project. Number 4 survives with more of its original features.

Numbers 5, 6 and 7 have stucco to the ground floor only, with brown stock brick used for the upper-storey wall surfaces. The entrances to numbers 5 and 6 are paired and set under an elaborate mid-19th-century porch: the party wall projects to form a double pier in the centre of the porch, with antae to the outer corners. Incised on each pier is the outline of a Greek-key pilaster strip. The entablature has a bracketed cornice. The side walls of the porch are pierced by round-arched windows with architraves interrupted by impost blocks and keystones. The windows are 1 by 1 sashes with margin lights of coloured glass. Architraves are present on all windows except those of numbers 3 and 4. The attic windows of numbers 5 and 6 have been lengthened and now interrupt the second floor cornice. Each second-floor and attic window of number 6 has a balcony; all windows to this unit have pelmets. The entrances to numbers 7 and 8 are framed by a projecting aedicule of Doric pilasters and entablature, the latter following the concave plan of the elevation.

The entrance elevation to number 9, positioned at right angles to the facades of numbers 2 to 7, is comparable to that of number 1. The entrance is set in a distyle-in-antis porch, the side walls of which are pierced by flat-arched windows. The entrance-range windows are set in tripartite aedicules, only the centre of which is glazed. To either side of the entrance rises a full-height segmental bay of three windows. The ground floor is stuccoed with windows having projecting sills. The brick to the upper storeys is painted. The first and second floor openings each have an architrave and entablature. The centre-window range of the left-hand bay is blocked on the second and attic floors. The corner-window range of the right-hand bay is blocked on the second floor, and the side windows in the attic of this bay are also blocked. As with number 1, a first-floor balcony with cast-iron railings runs throughout except in the entrance range. Number 9's return is much altered; the attic has a tripartite window set in a tetrastyle Tuscan aedicule, the entire range slightly recessed. Single 20th-century dormers are found on numbers 2 and 4; number 6 has two dormers; numbers 3, 5 and 7 each have three flat-arched dormers. Sashes of original design have recently been restored to number 2. Number 1 retains sashes of original design: in the corner bay, second and attic floors have 6 by 6 and 3 by 3 panes respectively; the entrance range second floor has a 6 by 6 centre window and 2 by 2 side windows; the attic of the entrance range has top sashes of three panes each; the attic windows to either side of the entrance range have top sashes of three panes each. Stacks are positioned on end and party walls. The rear elevations are brick, each with a full-height canted bay, some with cast-iron railings.

Internally, the large entrance hall to number 7 has a coffered ceiling. A dogleg stair is positioned to the rear with cast-iron balusters in a heart and anthemion pattern, wreathed handrail and curtail bottom step (similar stairs are found in numbers 8 and 9). An oval skylight illuminates the stair hall. Doors to landings of all units are richly moulded. The stair hall to number 8 has an octagonal skylight. To the left of the entrance, a suite of rooms formed by partitions from one larger room contains Arts and Crafts decorations of late 19th or early 20th-century date: a frieze of trees and tulips with Jacobean-style ceiling and a Renaissance Revival chimney piece in wood. The entrance hall of number 9 is entered through a distyle-in-antis arrangement. To either side are moulded doorcases with painted roundel overdoors depicting mythological subjects. All ground-floor decoration dates to the late 19th or early 20th century. The room to the north has Rococo Revival pelmets of the same date. Richly moulded cornices are found in most ground-floor rooms.

Walls and panelled piers are present at the entrances of numbers 7, 8 and 9. Railings are installed to all areas.

Many notable former residents have occupied the terrace. Number 1 was occupied by the first Lord Sudeley from 1836 until 1858 and by Sir Albert Sassoon from 1876 to 1896, the latter constructing his mausoleum in St George's Road. Number 1 became the Court Royal Hotel in 1914 and was converted into Court Royal Mansions in about 1955. Number 2 was home to George Augustus Sala in the 1890s and later to King Manuel of Portugal during his exile. The whole terrace forms a group with numbers 137 to 143 (consecutive and including Bristol Court) Marine Parade.