Augusta Villa

Augusta Villa is a house dating from around 1840, likely designed by George Gutch (c.1790-1874), built in a Neo-Classical style. The construction uses rendered and colourwashed brick with a slate roof. The building is two storeys high with a basement and attic.

The north-west facing front has three bays arranged symmetrically. A projecting porch is centrally placed, featuring paired pilasters on either side of its portal, with a plain entablature extending across the facade. Steps lead to the porch, and the sides have narrow windows. The panelled and half-glazed front door is embellished with decorative metal studs. Ground-floor windows are sash windows with three long panes each. The first floor has three sash windows, each with a 3X4 pane configuration. Above these, a frieze and cornice run across the front, topped by a blocking course. Balconies with metal balustrades are positioned above the porch and the side windows.

The gabled sides have first-floor and attic windows centrally positioned.

The rear elevation has three bays, with a long, round-arched staircase window in the projecting central bay, set above a doorway. Each side has sash windows with 3X4 panes and gently cambered heads. The staircase bay is flanked by 20th-century single-storey additions, and a glazed porch of a similar date has been added in front of the rear entrance. The interior’s central entrance hall leads to a dogleg staircase, featuring tulip balusters, a mahogany handrail with a wreathed curtail, and a corniced ceiling with paterae. The front reception room on the east side of the hall includes a pair of Ionic scagliola columns with pilaster responds, originally flanking a sideboard recess. The rear wall of this recess has been removed to connect the room with the rear room, which has been converted into a kitchen. The front reception room’s cornice is richly decorated, and the ceiling rose features acanthus leaves and paterae. The west reception room has a central recess flanked by cupboards, all with moulded timber surrounds; this opening was likely originally linked to the rear room but is now blocked. Original fire surrounds, made from veined or variegated marble, are found on both ground and first-floor levels. Doors are four-panelled.