Worcester House And Attached Front Area Railings And Piers

A terrace of fourteen houses, numbered 1-13 Worcester Terrace, built between 1851 and 1853 by Charles Underwood. The terrace is constructed of limestone ashlar with party wall and gable end stacks. It is of a Neoclassical style, with each house having three storeys, an attic, and a basement. Each house has a three-window range, with the end houses each featuring a three-storey, attic, and basement design. The overall effect is a fine formal terrace composition, where the end houses face at a right angle to the main terrace, and the middle four and end pairs step forward. Pilastrades define the middle houses, and clasping pilasters feature on the outer pairs. Architectural detailing includes a moulded plat band, a first-floor sill band, a frieze of rosettes, a dentil cornice, and a moulded coping to the attic. The doorways are recessed, with paired entrances at the centre, each featuring a recessed surround, a two-pane overlight, and a two-leaf six-panel door. The outer pairs have plain ground-floor windows, while the inner ones have rosettes to the recessed lintels. First-floor windows have architraves and six-pane sashes, and the attic windows have incised three-pane sashes. A continuous first-floor slate balcony runs across the terrace, supported by cast-iron brackets and bowed railings. The end houses have set back side entrances facing the terrace front, with single-storey, distyle Ionic porches, the porch to No.13 featuring early 20th-century glazing, above semicircular arched doorways and fanlights, with balustrades above. The entablature continues around the end elevations: three windows, with a projecting three-light bow in the centre, and clasping pilasters. Tripartite windows are placed between subordinate pilasters on the first floor, topped by a raised parapet with a balustrade. Ground-floor windows are recessed. Internally, the houses have wide entrance halls with semicircular arches to a dogleg staircase featuring turned balusters, a curtail, and stone treads. Principal rooms are linked by folding panelled doors, with Greek Revival cornices and ceilings. Panelled reveals are a feature of the six-panel doors, and panelled shutters are present. Attached spear-headed cast-iron front area gates and railings, along with capped piers to No.13, are subsidiary features. The terrace stands on a raised Pennant pavement, and retains much of its original iron railing.