Blenheim Terrace, 97-105 Castle Street

Terrace of five houses, built in the late C18 or early C19.

MATERIALS AND PLAN: the building is constructed of red brick with a Bath Stone façade onto Castle Hill, a roof covering of slate and iron railings to the front areas. Three storeys plus basement.

EXTERIOR: the terrace comprises five identical houses each two bays wide. Numbers 97 and 105, at either end of the terrace, project slightly forward. The entire front (north) elevation is of Bath Stone. The terrace is accessed from a raised walkway set back from the modern pavement. Each front door is approached by a flight of steps contained by dwarf walls that bridge the basement light wells; red brick walls support the right side of each dwarf wall. In general, the dwarf walls are surmounted by an iron balustrade topped by a flat handrail on the left-hand side and spearhead railings on the right-hand side. The basements have a separate gated entrance to the front, defined by a coped brick wall topped by decorative railings.

The ground floor of each property comprises two round-arched recesses, the eastern containing a round-arched sash window and the western containing a three-panelled door under a fanlight with a decorative, batwing glazing bar pattern. All five front doors appear to be original along with most of the windows across the front elevation. An impost moulding runs between the round-arched openings of each property at the height of the door heads, while a simple plat band runs between the ground and first floors.

On each property, there are two six-over-six sash windows on the first floor and two three-over-three sash windows on the second floor, with a plat band running between the floors and the allusion of a further band above the second-floor windows in the form of two continuous lines scored into the Bath Stone. The parapet has a small square cornice concealing a hipped slate roof to each property.

The eastern, western and rear (southern) elevations are of red brickwork, although the ground and first floors of the western elevation appear to be rendered and the first-floor plat band is carried around onto this façade in render. The rear elevation contains a regular pattern of timber sash windows (six-over-six on the ground and first floors and two-over-two on the second floor) with stone cills. There are doorways to numbers 97 and 101 accessed via bridges over a continuous basement area. The ground floor of number 105 has a small lean-to extension to the rear.