Front Garden Wall To Sydney Gardens Hotel And Ravenswell

A garden wall, entrances, and gate piers dating from 1853 fronts two semi-detached houses, similar in style to nearby Miles House. The wall is constructed from limestone ashlar with plain capping and extends roughly 90 metres long and 1.5 metres high. It is punctuated by piers approximately 2 metres high and spaced around 9 metres apart. There is an arched entrance to each house, standing approximately 3.5 metres high. These entrances have block tops, swept edges over modillion cornices, and semicircular arches with keystones, sunk spandrels, moulded imposts, and traces of former bell pulls. The piers also feature similar cornices, and their shafts have recessed panels with raised panels that have rounded corners. A 20th-century opening has been added for vehicle access, along with replacement plank gates. The entrance to Ravenswell retains its original double doors with recessed panels.

The wall was constructed in 1853 as the perimeter wall for a pair of villas, formerly Lonsdale and Ravensworth, now the Sydney Gardens Hotel and Ravenswell. The buildings are situated on the site formerly occupied by the labyrinth, an early feature of Sydney Gardens pleasure grounds, between the Great Western Railway and the Kennet and Avon Canal as they enter Sydney Gardens.

The wall is designated at Grade II for its substantial length of architectural boundary wall from the mid-19th century, for its continuing relationship to the houses it serves, the quality of the decorated gate piers and impressive entrances, and for its group value with the Grade II listed Sydney Gardens Hotel and Ravenswell, along with the adjacent Great Western Railway bridge and Kennet and Avon Canal bridge, both also Grade II listed.