18 And 19 And Attached Railings

A pair of terrace houses at 18 and 19 New King Street, built between 1764 and 1770, with alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The houses are constructed of limestone ashlar, some coursed rubble to the rear, with slate roofs. They have a double mansard roof, with No.19 being rebuilt and raised. The plan is of town houses with an entrance and staircase to the left.

The exterior is three storeys, an attic, and a basement, with two windows to each floor. There are twelve-pane dormers above, with plain, painted, moulded architraves and a floating cornice at the first floor. No. 18 has a single sash window on a splay at ground floor, and twelve panes to the basement. No. 19 has 20th-century windows in the mansard, above twelve panes at each level, trimmed as to match No. 18. Both houses have six-panel doors within a moulded architrave, topped with a flat hood on consoles. There is a platband above the ground floor, slightly stepped up at the centre, a modillion cornice, a blocking course, a parapet, a central lead downpipe, and straight masonry joints at each end. Coped party divisions and deep stacks are also present on the right side. The rear of each house features two dormers and tripartite sash windows, with straight drips above the first floor; tripartite windows are also present to the ground and first floors.

No. 18, inspected in 1974, has very fine cupboards either side of the fireplace with four-panel glazed doors, arches, and broken pediments above. No. 19, now the Herschel Museum, retains a wooden staircase with a columnar newel and three turned balusters per tread; the plasterwork and fireplaces are mainly of Regency date. The kitchen retains a flagged floor, an under-stairs cupboard, a copper, and a Victorian range. A workshop at the rear was used by Herschel for grinding mirrors for his telescopes. Vaults include a stone bench, shelves, and a stone sink. The first-floor drawing room features rope-scrolled panels around the walls.

The houses are surrounded by simple stone-curbed railings, which return to the doors and enclose the basement areas. These represent a building of group value. The houses are historically significant as the residence of Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), who discovered Uranus from his garden in March 1781 using a self-built 7-foot telescope. No. 19 was opened as a museum in 1981 and reveals town house interiors of the upper-middling sort. The external fabric demonstrates the staggered construction of the terrace, with variations in elevation and the use of straight joints marking sections of building.