195 and 197 Oxford Road

Two terraced houses, built during the 1820s, possibly by William Pratt Swallow, member of a prominent local family, and later converted to offices and flats, now flats throughout.

MATERIALS AND PLAN: the buildings are of red brick in Flemish bond and a slate roof covering, with a stucco plat band and recent (late C20 or C21) iron railings. They are of three storeys plus basement.

EXTERIOR: numbers 193 and 195 are the two easternmost houses in a terrace of five houses with a shared hipped roof and flush front and rear facades, likely built in two phases. Each house is two bays wide on to Oxford Road, the inner bay of each house being wider and slightly bowed.

The pair are on a symmetrical plan and have symmetrical front and rear elevations. The front door of each house is in the outside bay of the raised ground floor and comprises a six-panelled door with reeded quadrant jambs and Classical fret lintels under a sunburst fanlight, accessed via a flight of steps with iron handrails. The inside bay of the raised-ground floor of each house has a full-height window under a flat-arched head. On the first floor of each property are two tall windows under flat-arched heads, with a stucco plat band running across the elevation at cill height. The second floor of each property contains two smaller windows under flat-arched heads with stucco cills. The windows in the two central bays are wider than those on the outside bays. All of the windows at number 195 are uPVC casements while those at number 197 are recent (2012-2013) timber, glazing bar sashes. The window and door arches on the ground and first floor of number 197 are painted white. The basement façade of number 195 has been rebuilt in a lighter-coloured brick in stretcher bond, with a centrally-placed uPVC door flanked by two uPVC casements. At number 197, the basement contains a timber sash window with a painted, flat-arched window head. There are modern railings around the basement area and ground-floor window at number 197.

The rear elevation of each property has been extended across the full width at ground-floor level. The first and second floors of the two properties are symmetrical. There is a tall, thin, round-arched stair window in the outside bay of the first floor, alongside a window in the central bay (an eight-over-eight sash at number 197 and a uPVC casement at number 195), and a smaller window above (a four-over-over sash at number 197 and a uPVC casement at number 195). The greater part of the garden of number 195 is taken up by a single-storey, flat-roofed building fronting onto Prospect Mews, while most of the rear garden of number 197 has been combined with that at 199 Oxford Road to form a gravel car park.