No 2 Victoria Road and Railings to Front and No 2 and No 4 College Road

No 2 Victoria Road and railings to front and No 2 and No 4 College Road

A former restaurant and tearooms with attached properties, Grade II listed.

No 2 Victoria Road is a three-storey house, probably originally a private residence. The building dates from around the mid-17th century with substantial remodelling in the late 18th century. It is constructed of rendered and stuccoed stone rubble, with the third floor built of rendered and stuccoed softwood timber frame. The roof is bitumen-coated rag slate with gable ends and rendered brick stacks on each gable. A shallower two-storey outshot with slate roof and gable ends extends to the rear.

The original plan is uncertain, though the house appears to have been two storeys with a two or three-room layout, with the entrance positioned left of centre and end stacks heating the right and left rooms. During the late 18th century remodelling, a two-storey service outshot was added across the rear, creating a double-depth plan with a stair in a shallow projection near the centre. To accommodate a third storey, the ridge and eaves of the front roof slope were raised, though the rear slope of the earlier roof remained unaltered.

The front elevation is regular with four windows, rusticated quoins, and exposed sash boxes. The windows increase in size towards the right-hand side. The ground floor has an entrance left of centre with a part-glazed 19th-century six-panel door and door frame topped by a segmental arched hood on moulded console brackets. Three four-over-eight-pane sashes are present, with a wider window to the right. The first and second floors each have three three-over-six-pane sashes and a four-over-eight-pane sash to the right.

The interior was extensively remodelled in the 20th century with ground-floor internal partitions removed. The left-hand fireplace has an unmoulded granite lintel and is partly blocked. The circa late 18th century stair to the rear features stick balusters, turned newels, and a curved rail. The earlier roof trusses to the rear slope originally had lapped and pegged apices, with collars partly halved, lapped and pegged onto the face of the principals; the purlins were originally trenched. Nineteenth-century cast iron railings to the front and 19th-century iron gates complete the frontage.

Part of the rear outshot has been incorporated into No 4 College Road, and a 20th-century extension has been added to the right-hand gable end.

No 2 College Road is a two-storey cottage of circa mid-19th-century date, constructed of stone rubble with a rag slate roof with hipped ends. It was originally built as a separate structure on the left-hand gable end of No 2 Victoria Road and now shares ownership with that property. The front elevation is regular with three windows and gabled half dormers. The building was originally a two-room plan.

No 4 College Road is a house dating from around the 18th century and remodelled in the early 19th century. The walls comprise slate stone rubble to first-floor level on all four sides, with rendered stuccoed timber frame above. Part of the first floor has been rebuilt with stone rubble on the rear right. The steeply pitched slate roof has gable ends and deep overhanging eaves, with a brick lateral stack to the rear.

The original plan of No 4 College Road is uncertain; the building may originally have been an outbuilding. It currently has a rectangular two-room plan with an entrance in a partly blocked wider opening left of centre. The fireplace serves the rear lateral stack and is positioned almost opposite the entrance; a blocked door is visible on the exterior below the stack. A straight joint right of centre possibly indicates the house has been extended in that direction. The building has incorporated part of the rear circa late 18th-century outshot of the adjoining No 2 Victoria Road.

The front elevation has two storeys with a regular three-window arrangement. Window frames have been largely replaced in the late 20th century. The ground floor has a four-pane sash and part-glazed 20th-century door in the wider blocked opening to the left, and two 20th-century two-light casements to the right. The first floor retains three nine-pane windows in earlier 19th-century frames. The rear elevation forms the third side of a court to the rear of No 2 Victoria Road and No 2 College Road. The interior is not accessible.