Dorset House (formerly Alva House and Dorset House) and attached terrace and balustrade

Dorset House (formerly Alva House and Dorset House) and attached terrace and balustrade

A former pair of attached houses built in 1833-34, probably designed by R.S. Pope, later adapted to single occupancy in the late 20th century. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with stone and brick chimneystacks and a slate hipped mansard roof.

The plan is double-depth, comprising three storeys plus an attic and double basement. The exterior follows the neoclassical style with a symmetrical six-bay front. Single-bay projecting wings flank both sides, their ground floors banded to a plat band. The central bays are recessed behind a giant Doric colonnade of unusual 1:2:3:2:1 configuration in antis, leading to an entablature, with the second floor above and a full-width cornice and parapet. The entrances are positioned to each side, within the wings, fitted with six-panel doors. Most window openings are plain, though those to the outer first floor have architraves and console pediments, featuring 6/6-pane sashes to the right and 4/4-pane sashes to the left with plate-glass on the second floor. Three large dormers punctuate the left roof and smaller ones the right. A first-floor balcony spanning the colonnade is fitted with wrought-iron railings incorporating Vitruvian scrolls to the base and between the capitals. A narrow three-storey wing projects to the right, attached to the neighbouring building, with stone stairs to a lower-ground floor door. The left return is banded with two lateral stacks and a central ground-floor pediment. Beneath it stands a single-storey block, also banded with attached columns, a central pedimented doorcase and outer pediments, accessed by stone steps from the garden and sitting above a cellar structure of red stone blocks with wide buttresses. The rear elevation is rendered with two full-height bows to the middle and a late 19th-century ashlar canted bay to the right, with a stone external stair to the left.

The interior entrance lobbies feature niches covered in richly-decorated encaustic tiles, adjoining an axial passage to the rear. Stone cantilevered stairs at each end have wrought-iron balusters, curved sections between, curtails, and banded wreathed rails. Stair lobbies to each floor have decorative pediments to the doorways with fluted architraves. The rear ground floor contains modern partitions forming offices. Back stairs are plain and in one case partly truncated.

Principal first-floor rooms retain marble fire surrounds with Ionic columns and modillion cornices. The ground floor displays cornices with Greek Revival decoration. Throughout the building are panelled shutters, reveals and six-panel doors (many later replaced with fire doors), ceiling roses, and a variety of 19th-century chimneypieces in assorted styles, with plain examples in the attic floor and basement. The former party wall between the original two dwellings has been discretely opened up at each floor.

A flagged basement and vaulted sub-basement are present. The narrow infill wing adjoining No. 7 Litfield Place contains a former office and back stairs leading to the basement via ramp stairs, and has the appearance of commercial stores.

The attached terraces, stairs and balustrades to the rear of No. 9 are constructed of stone and brick with turned balusters, probably formerly extending to No. 8. The terrace was strengthened with concrete and brick supports in the early 21st century and the balustrade restored. Workshops and stores are built into the area below the terrace, with retaining walls continuing around the flank of the building to a further section of terrace with stone balustrade towards the front.

The modern internal partitioning is not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest.