Nos. 3, 4 And 5 And Attached Railings

Nos. 3, 4 and 5 Duke Street and attached railings

Houses, now flats, built 1745–1748 and designed by John Wood the Elder. These form the central five-bay section (arranged five:three:three) of a balanced twenty-five-bay terrace in the Palladian style, with Nos. 1 and 2 to the left and No. 1 Southborne Mansions to the right.

The buildings are constructed of limestone ashlar with painted ground floor and Welsh slate roofs. Each house comprises three storeys with attics and basements. A platband runs at first-floor level, with sill bands surviving only to No. 3. Wrought-iron area railings enclose the frontage. No. 3 features a central projection crowned with a pediment. The doorways carry pediments on consoles; the central door of No. 3 is particularly distinguished, with Ionic columns and a pediment fronting a rusticated surround with dropped keystone, and is fitted with an eight-panel door with rectangular overlight. Windows throughout are late 19th-century plate-glass sashes with plain glazing, except on the first and second floors (and basement) of No. 4, which retain six-over-six panes. First-floor windows have cornice heads; those of Nos. 4 and 5 have dropped sills. The buildings are crowned with a modillion cornice and parapet, beneath which sits a mansard roof with flat-topped dormers—two to each house, some double. Chimneys are of ashlar and rubble without pots. The rear elevation displays apsidal stair towers and late 19th-century projecting turrets; all rear windows are late 19th-century plain plate-glass sashes.

The interiors are exceptionally fine. No. 3 contains a particularly outstanding staircase with apsidal landings, a stone-panelled hall on the ground floor, turned bulbous balusters to the first-floor stairs, and a very fine painted stone fireplace on the lower floor. No. 5 retains a panelled rear room with an original painted stone fireplace featuring carved mouldings, and the linked ground floor contains an entrance hall with dentil cornice and coffered arch with Tuscan pilasters. Throughout the houses, original features survive: principal rooms display cornices (dentil, modillion, and ornate varieties), stone panelling with dados, and painted stone fireplaces, many with elaborate classical detailing. Notable details include a ceiling rose in a first-floor front room, recessed shelving flanking a fireplace, and at the corner room on the first floor of the linked Nos. 5 and 9 South Parade, a heavy cornice with leaf moulding on the soffit, a central rose incorporating acanthus leaves, and a white marble fireplace with ribbed pilasters capped with floral capitals. Staircases feature open strings, three banisters per tread, and quarter or half landings with wide ramped handrails. Some internal fireplaces have been removed from first floors, and Nos. 3 and 4 are now linked internally.

These houses form part of John Wood the Elder's uncompleted scheme for Abbey Orchard, dating from 1740–1748.