3-11 (Cons), Sea View Terrace

Terrace of nine houses on Sea View Terrace, Margate, built in 1872. The architect or builder is not at present known. The buildings are constructed in Italianate style with later alterations.

The terrace is built of stock brick in Flemish bond with stuccoed dressings to the ground floor and basement. Slate roofs and ridge brick chimneystacks are present throughout. Cast iron forms a continuous balcony to the first floor, porch panels, handrails and area railings. Sash windows, mostly replaced within existing openings, are located throughout.

The plan comprises nine houses of three storeys and basement. Each house has three bays to the two upper floors. Below this, a two-storey canted bay occupies the two lower floors on the left side, with a right side porch.

The principal north-west front features a stuccoed moulded cornice with paired brackets and vermiculated end quoins. The second floor contains three windows to each house, set in segmental arched moulded architraves with vermiculated keystones and bracketed stops. The first floor has central French windows with rectangular fanlights over, flanked by sash windows. The continuous balcony possesses an ogee-shaped corrugated iron canopy supported on cast-iron pilasters with cast-iron balustrading displaying oval and circular designs.

The ground floor and basement of each house feature one left side three-light canted bay with mutule frieze and chamfered window surrounds, supported on large brackets. Right side Tuscan porches with mutule frieze to cornices, rectangular fanlights and three panelled doors are present. Between the pilasters and columns of the porches are decorative cast iron panels. Flights of cement steps with solid balustrading terminate in square stone piers with ogee caps incorporating footscrapers. Simple cast-iron handrails sit above the balustrading, and the cast-iron area railings display a pattern of vine leaves and circles. The south-west flank wall to No. 3 has been cement rendered with incised lines to imitate masonry, with the lower part pebbledashed. A number of circular iron ties are present. The north-east flank wall to No. 11 is of stock brick. Rear elevations each have square projections of one, two or three storeys high with flat roofs. No. 8 has had a bay window added.

Interior spaces are likely to contain bracket cornices to the ceilings in staircase halls, with staircases featuring scrolled tread ends, two slender balusters to each tread and mahogany handrails. Ground floor rooms are likely to contain cornices of floral and ovolo-moulded plasterwork and ceiling roses, whilst first floor rooms have narrower ovolo-moulded cornices. Fireplaces with end brackets are likely to be present.

Built in 1872, Sea View Terrace is part of the growth of terraced housing in the Westbrook area following the opening of Margate West station in 1863. The exterior decoration, cast ironwork and joinery are very similar to Nos. 1-9 and Nos. 18-26 Ethelbert Crescent in Cliftonville, dated circa 1868, and are likely to be by the same hand. The buildings are first shown on the 1882 Ordnance Survey map, and the footprint remains unchanged.