16-19, ALFRED STREET

A terrace of four houses, built between 1773 and 1775. The houses were altered around 1930. They are constructed of limestone ashlar with double-pitched hipped slate mansard roofs, dormers and moulded stacks to the coped party walls. The terrace has a symmetrical design and a double-depth plan.

The houses are three storeys high with attics and basements, each generally having a three-window front, except for No.17, which is a public house with a six-window front. A continuous coped parapet runs along the top, accentuated by a modillion cornice, a ground-floor platband and plinth. Window reveals are splayed, and the upper-floor windows have moulded architraves. There are cornices and bracketed, lowered sills to the first-floor windows. Horned plate glass sash windows are present throughout. The entrances have set-back six-panel doors with moulded architraves and cornices, raised on consoles, to the right of Nos.16, 18 and 19. The houses have 19th-century style shopfronts, dating back to around 1930, at Nos.16 and 17.

The interiors were not inspected during the listing process. This terrace was part of the Oxford Row development, designed by Thomas Warr Atwood but with elevations by John Wood the Younger. It forms a notable group with the nearby Assembly Rooms. Plans were approved with ground-building leases dated 2 March 1773 for this site, formerly the location of "The Hand and Flower" public house. The leases for all four houses are dated 27 September 1775.