Nos. 11-15 (Consec) And Attached Wall

Five terrace houses on Sion Hill, dating from around 1795-1800, with No. 15 built later in 1810-1815 by Mr Williams, the builder. These properties form an important example of late Georgian terraced housing with significant Regency additions.

The houses are constructed in limestone ashlar and rubblestone, with slate mansard roofs featuring moulded stacks positioned at party walls and the right gable end. Twenty-first-century dormers have been added. The terrace originally comprised four similar two-window range houses with a continuous coped parapet, cornice, and six-over-six-pane sash windows with pedimented doorcases. No. 15, which was added shortly after, is taller with three windows and floor levels that do not align with the adjacent properties.

The buildings are three storeys with attics and basements, except No. 15 which has two storeys with an attic storey and lower ground floor. All have double-depth plans with full-height segmental bows to the rear garden fronts of Nos. 11, 13, 14 and 15.

Each house received a late nineteenth-century porch. No. 11, to the left, features a three-storey porch with coved cornice and parapet just below that of the house. It retains six-over-six-pane sash windows to the second floor above eight-over-eight-pane sashes to the right-hand range, with the first floor window featuring a trellised balconette. The porch has a tripartite two-over-two-pane sash window with horizontal glazing bars to the first floor, returned sill band over ground floor banded rustication, a moulded archivolt with keystone, and a continuous moulded impost string course above a plain fanlight. A six-panel door, glazed to the top, is flanked by small windows with similar arches and imposts. No. 12 has a lower three-storey porch with coped parapet and late nineteenth-century paired plate glass sash windows to the first and ground floors on the right. The original painted stone pedimented Tuscan doorcase has been repositioned; the former six-panel door has been altered to include a segmental arched glazed panel to the top.

No. 13 features a late nineteenth-century lower three-storey porch with coped parapet and cornice, two-over-two-pane sash windows with horizontal glazing bars, a three-light arcaded second floor window, paired first floor windows, and a right return at ground floor. The original repositioned Tuscan doorcase retains a six-panel door. The right-hand range has original six-over-six-pane sash windows, some incorporating crown glass. No. 14 has a two-storey porch with coped parapet and plat band coinciding with that of the house, with a small two-over-two-pane sash window above the original repositioned Tuscan doorcase featuring one horizontal glazed pane to the top. The right-hand range retains six-over-six-pane sash windows, though the ground floor has a plate glass lower sash.

No. 15 (1810-1815) is a taller building with higher floor levels. It features a coped parapet, cornice to the attic storey, and cornices over the first floor with ground floor platband return spanning the garden front. Six-over-six-pane sash windows include a blind window to the first floor right with painted glazing bars. The cornice and platband continue around a later nineteenth-century central two-storey porch with coped parapet and impost band supporting two semicircular arched two-over-two-pane first floor sash windows with continuous sills. Similar windows to the front right and returns share an impost string with an arched entrance to the left. The door has two panels to the base and bolection moulding to an octagonal panel to the top beneath an inverted fan with curved glazing bars in a semicircular fanlight, similar to examples at Nos. 4, 5 and 6 Lambridge (built 1820-1828). The house has an L-plan with a bow to the rear left wing. The rear features one window to the right-hand range and three windows to the bow, all six-over-six-pane sashes. To the attic, those flanking the bow are blind. The first floor of the bow retains six-over-six-pane sashes. In the angle of the rear wing at first floor, a stone block supported by a column at the projecting corner projects over the lower ground floor; a mid-nineteenth-century cast iron balcony with fretted eaves beneath a swept canopy extends over French windows. Stone steps lead down to the garden, and a late nineteenth-century conservatory is positioned to the right.

Interior Survey reports document substantial survival of original features across the properties. No. 11 retains a cantilevered stone staircase of four flights with wooden rails and mahogany hand rail, two rooms per floor with double doors featuring door frames with roundels to the corners, and some original plasterwork. No. 13 shows numerous surviving features including two rooms per floor, a glazed door to the inner hall, double doors between reception rooms, marble chimneypieces, lion-masks to door frame corners, a closed-string staircase with square section wooden rails, and a basement containing a bread oven, stone sink, and well.

No. 15 retains a substantially intact Regency interior. Six-panel doors in reeded architraves with roundels at block corners, good cornices (one to a rear room featuring Vitruvian scroll decoration), and a cantilevered open-string stone staircase with moulded ends and rear treads supported by alternate wood and metal dowel-rod balusters are present. The wreathed mahogany rail features fine inlaid roundels over the newel post. Late nineteenth-century panelling and a door enclose the basement entrance. Stone stairs serve the basement, with wooden stairs to upper floors featuring closed strings. Early nineteenth-century simple painted stone fire surrounds exist to the upper floors, with those at ground level probably repositioned. A first floor corner block door has elaborate panelling to its sides, similar to the front door. The basement is stone-flagged with a vaulted wine cellar and Bath dresser.

The rear gardens are enclosed by ashlar walls. That to No. 15 is approximately 2.5 metres high and 50 metres long, with a gate positioned close to the house. Approximately halfway along, the initials "D W" (those of the builder) are carved into ashlar blocks on both sides of the wall. The wall at the rear end is constructed in rubblestone.