Freshford Kingston

A pair of attached houses, named Freshford and Kingston, were built in 1833 by Charles Dyer. They are now offices. The houses are constructed of limestone ashlar with external and party wall stacks, and have a slate hipped roof. They are arranged over two storeys, an attic, and a basement, and have a six-window front.

The principal facade faces Queen’s Road and is divided into two sections. The left-hand section is symmetrical, featuring projecting wings with a banded ground floor, a plat band, paired first-floor pilasters with carved capitals set forward, a moulded frieze, a dentil cornice, and a parapet with paired pilasters to a pediment and a central panel with Greek key decoration. The ground-floor windows are tripartite, and the first-floor windows have architraves and pediments. A central tripartite window is flanked by broad panelled jambs, below fluted Corinthian columns in a distyle-in-antis recessed first-floor bay, containing a pedimented tripartite window. Balconies feature cast-iron balustrades with palmettes.

The right-hand section has a central external stack with first-floor pilasters, a central ground-floor window, and semicircular-arched first-floor windows to either side of the stack. Two attic windows have been cut through the frieze and cornice above. The right-hand return has a full-height three-light bay with curved sides, a pedimented first-floor middle window with a balustrade apron and panels over the flanking windows, and a pediment to the right-hand window. The left-hand return features a large semicircular-arched stair light with margin panes.

The rear entrance front is near-symmetrical with a four-window range, featuring entrance porches to projecting entrance sections with shallow parapet pediments. A single-storey porch leads to No.21 with panelled jambs, a six-panel door, and a balustrade between dies. A deeper two-bay porch to No.20 is in a matching style, with a wide second-floor panel across the centre. Architraves with pediments frame the 6/6-pane sash windows; the left-hand end is set back with an external stack.

Inside No.20, a marble-flagged lobby leads to an entrance hall and a central lateral stair hall decorated with Greek Revival-style plasterwork. A lateral, top-lit, stone cantilevered open-well stair has cast-iron balusters with palmettes and a curtail. The reveals to the six-panel doors are panelled.

The houses are part of a fine group of three villas and represent a new standard for suburban aspirations.