114 AND 116, WALCOT STREET

A pair of symmetrical houses with projecting shop fronts, built around 1800 and restored in 1989-1990. The buildings are constructed from limestone ashlar with an unseen roof and a central stack to the party wall. The plan is a double depth.

The exterior features four storeys, including an attic. Each house has a single tripartite window on every floor. The upper storeys are set back from the street, with concave shop fronts that project and curve back to meet the main facade. The quoins curve back to meet the facade on the right. A coped parapet and cornice adorn the attic storey, while a cornice and lintel frieze is present on the second floor. A platband with "CORNWELL BUILDINGS" carved into the right-hand corner sits above the first floor. The tripartite windows have timber mullions; six-pane glazing to the attics and four-pane glazing to the second and first floors. First-floor windows have low sills. Curved cornices and fascias cover the ground floor. The shop fronts contain eight-panel doors with ornamental inverted corners to raised moulded panels, and radial fans in overlights at the outer ends. Two half-glazed shop doors with two-pane overlights are flanked by four vertical twelve-paned shop windows with a plain panel in the centre. Four doors and the central panel have reeded architraves with foliate blocks to the upper corners, and Vitruvian scroll ornament to their transoms.

The interiors have not been inspected. This section of Walcot Street was formerly known as Cornwall Street. The houses are designated Grade II* for their interest, particularly due to the unusual curved shop fronts, which appear to be contemporary with the houses and represent an innovative approach to integrating a shop front with the street elevation.