Briar House And Under The Hill

WESTON ROAD 656-1/27/1870 (North side) Briar House and Under The Hill 11/08/72

GV II

Includes: Briar House and Under The Hill WESTON PARK. Symmetrical pair of houses. c1820. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, rubblestone semi-basement, double pitched slate roof with moulded stacks to gable ends. EXTERIOR: Three storeys and semi-basement; three-window front with a blind window to the first floor of the party wall: each house thus has a single window front. Continuous coped parapet, cornice, cornice band, second floor sill band, ground floor platband and plinth. Recessed panels to the openings. To the first floor is a balcony on brackets with a swept canopy on fine cast iron supports and railings, with strigillated decoration. The second floor has small three-pane casement windows flanking the party wall. To the ground floor centre are serpentine flights of steps leading to six-panel doors and fanlights in semicircular arches. Briar House to the right has plate glass sash windows and a plain fanlight. Under The Hill has an entrance in West Park, a three/three-pane sash window to the second floor and a nine/nine-pane sash to the first floor, a six/six-pane sash to the ground floor and radial glazing bars to the fanlight. INTERIORS: Not inspected. A good pair of semi-detached Late Georgian houses, possessing very fine ironwork; strigillation is a form of ornament found on Roman sarcophagi, which was also employed in a similar position on the façade of Sir John Soane's London house of 1812. 1945 photo in NMR: houses were then called 'Donnington' and 'Underhill'. Briar House, altered in 1957, was extended and part-demolished in 1975.

Listing NGR: ST7347765835