1-5, Nelson Place East

Five terraced houses, now in use as shops, built in the early 19th century with alterations made in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The buildings are constructed in limestone ashlar with a variety of roof treatments. Number 5 is distinctive with a double Roman tile mansard roof featuring moulded chimney stacks to the gable ends, though the right stack is truncated. The other properties have shallow roofs not visible from the street.

The buildings follow a double-depth plan and rise to three storeys. Each shop occupies a single-window front. The facades are topped with coped parapets and cornices. Originally, the second floors had eight-over-eight-pane sash windows and the first floors had six-over-six-pane sashes with wrought iron railings to stone slab balconies, though many have been replaced.

Number 1 was formerly a butcher's shop and retains an early 19th-century shopfront with later alterations by Batchelor. It features a horned eight-over-eight-pane sash window to the second floor and a six-over-six-pane sash with a first-floor balcony. The shop window is set within a white marble plinth with a slate base and brass sill. The window is a three-light, three-pane design with brass handles at the base which may once have opened. Doors to left and right have reeded jambs and lintels with foliate motifs to the upper corner blocks. A 20th-century door to the right has timber trellis above. The right return includes a projecting three-light shop window with trellised timber curved corners. A blind window sits on the second floor above a six-over-six-pane sash window to the first floor. A circular window and a five-panel door beneath a hood on moulded consoles occupy the ground floor. A single-storey rear wing connects to a rear stable block with a hipped double Roman tile roof and 20th-century garage doors.

Number 2 has a horned eight-over-eight-pane sash window to the second floor and vertical glazing bars to a three-over-three-pane sash without horns to the first floor, with no balcony. An ornate late 19th-century cornice with decorative consoles to the fascia runs across the ground floor. A continuous leaded overlight accompanies a set-back late 19th-century glazed door positioned right of centre, flanked by moulded sills to plate glass shop windows that curve inward. This shop window dates from 1908 and was designed by J. Foster, while the remainder of the shopfront is early to mid-19th century. To the right is a six-panel door glazed to the top, with an overlight and flanking pilasters with recessed panels. The lobby contains coloured mosaic paving with the lettering 'RICHARDS', indicating it was occupied in 1908 by Wm. Reginald Richards, Watchmaker and Jeweller.

Number 3 retains its original eight-over-eight-pane sash window to the second floor and has vertical glazing bars to a three-over-three-pane sash to the first floor, together with a balcony. A six-panel door glazed to the top stands to the right. The mid-19th-century shopfront is projecting with a returned cornice and fascia, while late 19th-century additions include glazed double doors with semi-elliptical tops and similar semi-elliptical tops to two plate glass shop windows.

Number 4 has painted ashlar with original windows and balcony, narrow incised pilasters flanking a six-panel door to the right, and a mid-19th-century shop and door with shaped consoles to the fascia.

Number 5 features a mansard roof. It displays a plate glass sash window to the second floor, a three-over-three-pane sash with vertical glazing bars to the first floor, a balcony, a six-panel door with overlight and balcony to the right, moulded consoles to the fascia, and narrow pilasters flanking a mid-19th-century shop and door to the right.

Interiors of Numbers 2, 3 and 4 were inspected, but little of the original interior features remain.