2-6, Pierrepont Street

A row of houses, now in mixed use as offices and meeting rooms, was built between 1740 and 1745 by John Wood the Elder. Described by Wood as "a row of fifth-rate houses of the grander sort," the terrace was conceived as a whole and comprises three, six, four, six, and three bays respectively. The design echoes similar properties at numbers 7 North Parade and 1 South Parade. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar, with the ground floors of numbers 2, 3, and 5 painted, and has Welsh slate roofing.

The houses are three storeys high, with attics and basements, and feature a platband at first floor level. Windows are mostly sash windows, with dropped sills and cornice heads on the first floor (except at numbers 4 and 6). Wrought-iron area railings are present, with two original six/six-pane sashes in the basement of numbers 3 and 5. Doorways vary in design; numbers 2 and 3 have pediments on consoles over six-panel doors, while number 5 has a pediment over a panelled door. Number 6’s door has lost its architraves and pediment. The ground floor windows are plain sashes, the second floor windows are six/six-pane, except for number 6 where the second floor has been altered to twelve-pane French casements. In later years, window reveals at numbers 3A and 4 were chamfered, and some second-floor windows were altered. The building has a modillion cornice, a parapet, and a mansard roof with flat-topped dormers (gabled to number 6). Ashlar stacks with pots are present at numbers 2, 3 and 6.

The interiors have not been inspected. Historically, the houses were residences to notable figures, including the actor James Quin (who died at number 4), Lord Chesterfield (at 3A), and Horatio Nelson (at number 2). Number 5 was the birthplace of Elizabeth Ann Linley. The terrace forms part of an uncompleted scheme by John Wood for the Duke of Kingston’s estate, intended to create a formal link between North Parade and South Parade. The houses have undergone alterations but remain an essential part of a significant urban improvement project.