199-203 Oxford Road

Three terraced houses built in the 1820s, possibly by William Pratt Swallow, a member of a prominent local family. They were later partially converted to offices and flats, and are now entirely residential flats.

The front elevation facing Oxford Road is stuccoed, while the remaining elevations are of red brick laid in Flemish bond and stretcher bond (the later extensions). The roof is slate-covered, and iron handrails and railings protect the front steps and basement areas. The houses are three storeys tall with basements.

Each house presents two bays onto Oxford Road with matching one- to two-storey rear extensions. The front elevations are uniformly designed in stucco with raised and incised detailing around windows and doors, and a parapet. The main entrance, positioned in the western bay of the raised ground floor, comprises a six-panelled door beneath a reticulated sunburst fanlight, set within a round-arched recess with restrained detailing. The door is accessed via stone steps with iron handrails. In the eastern bay stands a round-headed sash window in a matching round-arched recess, with a basement sash window directly below facing the front area.

The first floor has two square-headed sash windows (eight-over-eight glazing at number 199, six-over-six at numbers 201 and 203), each within round-arched recesses with incised tympana. A plat band runs across the elevation at first-floor cill height. The second floor contains two smaller sash windows (eight-over-eight at numbers 199 and 203, six-over-six at number 201) with square surrounds following the common detailing pattern. Above these is a cornice parapet with incised panels aligned to the fenestration pattern. The parapet conceals a hipped roof shared with the adjoining houses at numbers 195 and 197 Oxford Road, with ridge chimney stacks on the party walls between each property.

The western elevation is exposed brickwork with a rendered lower section, partly obscured by a modern advertising billboard. Rear elevations contain single sash windows on the ground, first and second floors, plus an additional casement window on the first floor. The matching rear extensions have an unusual form: a two-storey element with hipped and pitched roof adjoining the main house, and a single-storey element beneath a steep catslide formed from the southern slope of the hipped roof. The western elevation of the number 203 extension, fronting Prospect Street, contains timber casements on the ground and first floors.

Each property has a rendered boundary wall onto Oxford Road and flanking the front garden, which are uniformly paved and concreted. Number 203 has a brick boundary wall to its rear garden containing historic brickwork.