19-26, ST MARK'S ROAD

This is a group of eight houses at 19-26 St Mark’s Road, dating from about 1830. Constructed as an end to an extended terrace, they represent a modest termination to a longer development. The houses are built with limestone ashlar fronts, with coursed and squared block to the rear, which has been painted at numbers 21-23, both front and rear. They have concrete tile roofs.

The houses are small, double-depth cottages, each of two storeys with one window to the front, except for number 20, which has two windows at the first floor, carried over a wide carriageway, and an extra, wide bay with a pair of plank sliding carriageway doors. Most windows have plain plate glass, although numbers 19, 23 and 26 retain sash windows. Each house has a six-panelled door with a shallow transom light (in a four-pane design for numbers 23 and 24) on the left-hand side of the front. Architectural details include a broad platband, moulded cornice, blocking course and parapet, all slightly stepped up to the end house and straight-jointed to number 25. Two ashlar chimney stacks are present on each of the party divisions, topped with coping. The right return is plain, with a single twelve-pane sash window. The rear elevation mostly features plain sashes, but number 23 has twelve-pane sashes, and the rest have a mixture of various other lights and casement doors, with small extensions to each house. The interior of the houses has not been inspected, although it is reported that number 23 retains many original features. The historical significance lies in their provision of housing of different qualities within a larger development and their location facing the south flank of St Mark’s Church, which opened in 1832.