26 St Matthew's Road

26 St Matthew's Road is a town house in a row, built in the 18th century with extensions and modifications added in the early 19th century, and some 20th-century alterations.

The building has painted roughcast render throughout all elevations, with concrete tile and slate roofs, and some flat roofs. It forms a rough L-shape, comprising a main range running north-east to south-west parallel to the road, with a wing at right angles. A small addition extends from the northern end, and an irregular triangular infill section lies between the rear of the main range and the pavement at the northern part of the plot. The main range follows a traditional cross-passage plan with principal rooms on either side.

The building presents two storeys overall. The main range has three bays and the wing four bays. The elevation fronting St Matthew's Road is set at an angle to the main range and faces the pavement. It has a low stone-coped parapet, with timber sash windows featuring exposed sash boxes. The leftmost bay is blind. The parapet ramps downward from the taller three-storey house adjacent in the row, concealing an enclosed staircase that provides access to the roof, then continues along the remainder of the elevation. The next bay toward the right projects at an angle and contains a very small timber window on its ground floor. This bay houses a wide 18th-century doorcase with a contemporary raised and fielded panel door at ground level and a one-over-one sash window above. To the right lies a tripartite window of one-over-one sashes with another similar above it, followed by a further one-over-one sash. The first-floor windows sit higher than those in the bay to the left. The far right half-bay is a small single-storey element featuring a small timber hatch covering a square opening with a stone surround.

On the garden elevation, the wing projects to the left. To the right stands a small single-storey flat-roofed stone-built extension housing one internal and one external room. The external room has a 19th-century part-glazed door with coloured margin glazing. The main range carries a parapet above a moulded stone string course. The windows in both ranges are mostly segmental-arched sashes with exposed sash boxes. The main range has three window bays on the first floor, all being six-over-six hornless sashes. The ground floor features an 18th-century doorcase to the left with a pedimented hood on moulded brackets, an oval fanlight, and an 18th-century door. To the right is a large full-height multi-paned window with a leaded hood carried on slender moulded brackets, the central section made as double doors. The pitched roof over the original main range is covered in concrete tile and is surrounded by a flat roof over the extension toward St Matthew's Road, forming a valley behind the rear parapet. A covered staircase rises above the easternmost bay to provide roof access.

The wing adjoins the main range at right angles. The right-hand bay, under a shallow mono-pitched roof, is bowed. Its ground floor contains a full-height tripartite bowed window with reeded mullions and hornless sashes. Above is a probably 19th-century window with segmental-arched lights, its overhanging eaves carried on moulded brackets. The remainder of the range comprises three bays under a hipped roof covered in concrete tile. The right-hand bay has 19th-century French doors at ground floor and 20th-century doors above, with a small Juliet balcony. The remaining bays feature segmental-arched recessed horned sash windows, those on the first floor having one-over-one glazing. The gable end displays a wide shallow segmental-arched window.

Interior access from St Matthew's Road passes through an 18th-century door and classical doorcase, probably brought forward from the original main elevation, into the present porch. Doors lead left to a WC and right into the principal room within the triangular extension. This room contains a late-20th-century classical fireplace, 19th-century chair rails and skirting boards, and 19th-century panelled cupboard doors. Two large corbels extend above the doorway into the main range, marking the extension to the front of the house.

The single-depth main range follows a through-plan with a large central stair hall paved with very large flagstones. The opening that formerly housed the front door directly opposes the back door (formerly the front door), now housing an 18th-century half-glazed door with etched and coloured glass to the margins, and an oval over-light with coloured floral and foliate glazing. The range has fluted door surrounds with square corners and paterae, and six-panelled doors. The present kitchen, to the north, features a plaster cornice with scrolling floral motifs, shutters and a panelled reveal to the full-height window, a timber sink above panelled cupboard doors, and a door to a small closet now used as a pantry. The fireplace opening has been raised with a new timber lintel to accommodate a stove.

The opposing bay originally held a large room that now divides into an ante-room to the extension and a drawing room with wide floorboards and an anthemion cornice introduced later. This original room opens into the wing, which has a higher ceiling height with the former exterior wall removed and supported on two fluted Doric columns. The southern section within the wing contains a full-height bow window with curved shutters and a fireplace with a timber surround featuring fluting and paterae matching the door surrounds. Beyond lie two further rooms, one with a mid-19th-century fireplace with a plain timber surround. Evidence of reordering exists in this area, including removal of part of one wall and a second fireplace.

The open-string dog-leg stair features a wide wreathed curtail step and three slender turned balusters to each tread. The toadback handrail is ramped. A shallow dado rail runs opposite the handrail up the flight's height. On the half-landing stands a tall arched niche marking the former site of a stair window, infilled following the addition of the extension beyond. The balusters and handrail continue to form a closely-set gallery along the landing. The landing has four-panelled doors to rooms within the main range with flat-moulded pegged surrounds, while those to the front extension are two-panelled. The room within the extension to St Matthew's Road has a flat-moulded timber fire surround and a re-used 18th-century iron hob grate, with panelled cupboard doors. The main range is largely occupied by a large bedroom with panelling beneath the windows, which have window seats, and along one wall incorporating cupboard doors. At the north end, an enclosed timber stair set within an arched opening provides access to the roof, emerging on a flat-roofed section with a door opposite the remaining pitched roof section. This roof is formed from slender trusses with collars and tie beams, raking braces, and some queen struts. The first-floor rooms in the wing were not accessible at the time of inspection in 2019.