No.1 And Attached Railings And Vaults

House, now flats, dating from around 1775. Possibly designed and certainly developed by Thomas Warr Atwood, who obtained the ground in 1773. The building occupies a corner position at Oxford Row and Alfred Street.

The structure is built in limestone ashlar to the front and left side, with rubble work below basement windows. It has a parapeted mansard roof covered in Welsh slate, with multiple chimneys: a small ashlar stack rising from the front slope to the centre left, a long stack to the right rising from the party wall and shared with No.2 Oxford Row, and a stack to the rear left with early clay pots rising from the coped party wall with No.19 Alfred Street.

The entrance front to Oxford Row comprises three storeys, an attic and basement, with a four-window front. The first floor contains three nine-over-nine horned sashes and a similar six-over-six sash to the left, all within ovolo moulded architraves rising from stone sills with friezes and cornices. Three windows to the right have splayed reveals with lowered sills. The second floor has four six-over-six horned sashes in ovolo moulded architraves with stone sills, three to the right splayed. The ground floor contains three six-over-six horned sashes: to the left in a plain reveal with stone sill, and to the right in splayed reveals with stone sills. The entrance door is centrally placed, of six panels, flush beaded, fielded and glazed, with a fanlight in a later semicircular-headed flat surround with splayed reveal, and a pennant paved crossover. The basement to the left has one six-pane former sash in a partially blocked window with wrought iron bars with shaped heads in a plain reveal with stone sill; a similar window with splayed reveal appears to the right, alongside a twentieth-century door. A four-panel door sits under the crossover. A pennant paved bridge spans the area with twentieth-century area steps. One window opening and one doorway provide access to the vaults. A single dormer with a six-over-six horned sash and a double dormer with six-over-six sashes punctuate the roof.

A band course runs over the ground floor, now cut into by the door surround, with an incised street name "OXFORD ROW" to the left. A modillion eaves cornice and coped parapet complete the front elevation. A lead hopperhead and downpipe are attached to the right.

The elevation to Alfred Street forms a three-window range similar to that of 19 Alfred Street but without a door. It features one six-over-six sash in a splayed reveal with stone sill, a blocked doorway, and a three-pane fixed light above an extension fitted with a twentieth-century window in the basement area. One doorway provides access to the vaults. An incised street name "ALFRED STREET" appears on the band course over the ground floor to the right. One double and one single dormer with two-over-two horned sashes are present. The building is largely enclosed to the rear and not visible.

The interior was not inspected.

Subsidiary features include attached wrought iron railings and gate with shaped heads on limestone bases. A wrought iron bar with anti-intruder spikes is attached from the railings to the ground floor right, and another wrought iron bar is attached over the area steps adjacent to the gate to the left.

These houses were developed on Council land by Thomas Warr Atwood following his acquisition of the ground in 1773. They are standard Palladian designs of the 1770s and could be the work of Atwood, John Wood the Younger, or Thomas Jelly, though evidence suggests Atwood as the most likely designer. Atwood was described as a competent though conservative architect whose elevations exemplify the English Palladian tradition as applied to street architecture.