32 And 33, St Mark'S Road

A pair of large semi-detached houses dating to circa 1860. The houses are constructed of limestone ashlar with slate roofs featuring lead dressings; some of the slates on No. 32 are shaped. They are situated on a steeply sloping site, with an additional full-height storey to rear. Each house has two windows wide, with two storeys, an attic, and a lower ground floor. The windows are plain plate glass sashes. Dormers are set within the very steeply pitched mansard roof slope, including a single-light dormer over the entrance and a smaller light to the centre. Large sashes with moulded cornices on consoles decorate the ground floor, while a large sash is present in the basement within a narrow, enclosed area. Prominent stone porches are on the outer sides, containing four-panel doors in moulded surrounds, supported by short, square, fluted columns with foliate capitals, standing on high pedestals incorporated into the boundary wall. The porch entablature features a shouldered architrave, a moulded cornice, and decorative cast iron cresting. A small arched light with coloured glass is adjacent to the porch. The left return of each house has three dormers; those to the front have cast iron crestings, with an eaves stack towards the rear, and a single sash at ground floor level. The return to No. 33 is similar, with two sashes at ground level but without cresting. The rear elevation has two dormers on each house, with cresting to No. 32, above two plain sashes and a single and tripartite sash with cornices at ground floor, but not at the lower ground level. No. 33 features a small stone balcony with pierced balustrade to the first-floor main sash. The interiors have not been inspected. Across the street front, a stepped balustrade on a plinth wall serves as a retaining wall to the basement areas, featuring square piers with incised front panels and rounded tops at each end and centre. This wall returns to connect with a high (approximately 3m) retaining wall at the rear, to Claverton Street, constructed from squared rubble with deep coping and plain spiked railings across the full width of the site. Plank doors at each end give access to flights of stone steps.