1-9, Lowndes Buildings

Lowndes Buildings is a terrace of nine cottages built in 1839 or 1840 in Farnham. It is constructed of brick and clunch (local chalk stone) with a slate roof.

The terrace consists of a continuous row of nine cottages, each one room wide and two rooms deep with a pitched roof. Shared chimney stacks are positioned on the ridge between each pair of cottages. At the rear stands a discontinuous row of three single-storey brick outhouses with tiled roofs.

The front elevation is laid in Flemish Bond brick. After no. 1, each pair of cottages has front doors placed side by side, with two windows above them arranged vertically. The majority of windows are original: horizontal sliding sashes on the first floor and 16-paned sashes on the ground floor, though the ground floor windows of nos. 1-3 are slightly smaller. No. 2 has replacement windows (a sash below, a casement above), while nos. 3 and 8 have replaced their lower and upper windows respectively. Windows and doors are topped with gauged brick cambered arches and flat heads. The front door of no. 1 is paired with an archway providing access to the rear of the terrace.

The rear elevation is built of roughly squared coursed local clunch stone with brick surrounds to windows and doors. In nos. 1-3, the first floor is brick from sill level upwards with gauged brick cambered arches, while the remaining cottages have flat gauged brick lintels. A vertical line of bricks marks the division between nos. 3 and 4. Some cottages have replacement horizontal sliding sash windows and additional first-floor windows where bathrooms have been inserted.

Interiors examined (nos. 3 and 5) reveal front doors opening directly into the front room. No. 5 contains a wide chimney breast with a brick fireplace; no. 3 has a modern hearth with wooden mantelpiece. Back rooms serve as kitchens, each containing an open staircase without balusters set against the east wall with open space beneath. These stairs rise to two upper rooms; in both cases the back bedroom has been subdivided to form a bathroom. The front bedroom of no. 5 contains an original fireplace with simple wooden surround flush with the chimney breast. No. 5 retains plank and batten doors, while no. 3 has modern replacement doors. No. 7 has had interior work undertaken, with one internal partition removed. A 1990 survey of no. 6 by the Surrey Domestic Buildings Research Group revealed light timber framing in internal walls, a clasped purlin roof with queen posts, and an open roof space extending between nos. 4 and 9. The plan form of remaining cottages appears largely intact.

Iron railings surround and subdivide the front gardens, with a gate providing access to each garden.

The terrace is named after Thomas Lowndes, whose will of 1833 includes the land. It does not appear on the Farnham Tithe map of 1839 but features in census returns from 1841 onwards. Its construction formed part of infilling open land behind Castle Street with modest housing. The terrace appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1871 alongside similar terraces such as Long Garden Walk. A Working Men's Institute stood a short distance to the north. Historic maps show the terrace originally had a continuous line of outhouses at the rear, now replaced by the current discontinuous row of three separate outhouses.