117-121 Castle Hill

A terrace of three houses built in the early 19th century.

The principal northern elevations are rendered with slate roofs and red brick chimney stacks. Numbers 117 and 119 have an iron balcony to the first floor supported on iron columns. The rear elevations of numbers 117 and 119 are partly of exposed brick and partly rendered, while the rear elevation of number 121 is rendered.

The group appears to have been constructed in two stages, with numbers 117, 119 and the eastern bay of 121 built first, and the rear extensions of 117 and 119 and the two western bays of 121 built later, possibly replacing an earlier element. All three houses are three storeys plus basement with rendered facades and slate roofs.

Numbers 117 and 119 are mirror images of each other, each two bays wide and sharing a ridge chimney stack on the party wall. The ground floor consists of a front door with sunburst fanlight on the outside and an eight-over-eight sash window adjacent to the party wall. The first floors have a single opening located directly above the ground-floor window. On 117, this is an eight-over-eight sash window matching the ground floor, while at 119 this is a pair of French doors with glazing bars to the upper three quarters, which probably replaced a window matching that at 117. An iron balcony at first-floor level spans both properties, supported by moulded iron brackets and columns rising up from either side of the front doorways. At first-floor ceiling height is a plat band across both properties. At second-floor level, both houses have two three-over-three sash windows below a line of brick dentils at the eaves. The properties share a double-pitched roof.

Number 121 differs in design from its neighbours to the east. The house is three bays wide, with the two western bays slightly recessed from the wider eastern bay, which is flush with 117 and 119. The main entrance sits centrally on the ground floor, comprising a six-panelled door under a sunburst fanlight, set within a reeded doorcase with a heavy cornice. At the first and second floors are three windows each, those at the first floor being six-over-six sashes and those at the second floor being three-over-three sashes. The easternmost second-floor window matches those at 117 and 119. The house has lost the plat band that runs across the façade of 117 and 119. Above the second-floor windows is a corniced parapet. A section of the western party wall steps in at first- and second-floor level to create a light well around a first-floor window on the eastern gable end wall of 123 Castle Hill. This composition suggests that the western bays of 121 were built after 123.

The basements of numbers 117 and 121 have been converted to car garages, with ramps down from the street. The front garden of 117 is mainly taken up by a ramp down to the basement. At 119, the front garden has been paved, with a small area in front of the basement enclosed by railings. At 121, the eastern half of the front garden is taken up by a ramp to the basement car garage as at 117, while the western half is lawned. There are rendered walls along the eastern and western boundaries of the garden, and railings and gate piers along the north boundary.

Numbers 117 and 119 have full-width extensions to the rear. At 117 the extension is in two parts, each rising through three storeys. The western half is of exposed red brickwork with sash windows and a hipped roof, and the eastern half is rendered with windows, possibly modern casements, at each level and a mono-pitched roof. The rear extension of 119 rises through two storeys and is of red brickwork containing windows on each floor, under a mono-pitched roof.

The rear elevation of 121 is stuccoed and contains a range of sash windows on each floor. The western half of the elevation projects out along the boundary with 119. On the southern elevation of this projection is a two-storey canted bay window which appears to contain a sash window on the first floor.