199-205, WELLSWAY

Four terrace houses dating from around 1830. The houses are constructed of limestone ashlar with slate roofs. They are double-depth, stepped down a hill, which creates an additional storey to the rear. The front elevation has three storeys and a lower ground floor, with each house featuring two windows, all plain sash windows within splayed surrounds. Number 205 retains cast iron balconettes to the first and second floors. Each house has a projecting flat-roofed porch with a bold square design, brought forward to the pavement edge, and linked by low ashlar walls across the lower ground floor areas. The porches cover a pair of vertically panelled doors set within Doric pilasters, topped by an entablature and blocking; the blocking to number 203 takes the form of a shallow pyramid. The lower ground floor of each house has a single large sash window. There are plain bands above the porches, a frieze and cornice above the first floor, and a cornice, blocking course and parapet above the second floor, all stepped and swept, and returned to the ends, including the parapet. Twin ashlar stacks are positioned to the left of each house and at the right-hand end of the roof; the rear roof finishes with two hips. The right return has paired sash windows at the second floor, and the left return has paired sashes at the first and second floors. The rear elevation is of rubble construction, except for the top floor, which is dressed stone, and each house features a single large sash window on each floor. Those in number 203 are twelve-paned. There are cavetto cornices above the first floor and to the parapet. The interiors have not been inspected. The terrace stands in isolation and may have been part of a larger development that was never completed. The design shows the influence of John Pinch's approach to houses on sloping sites, though the upswept string courses characteristic of Pinch are here executed in a stepped rather than upswept manner.