23, Frances Street

No. 23 Frances Street is a villa, now used as commercial premises, dating from the 1830s. It is possibly designed by Philip Sambell for the developer Josephus Ferris. The building features incised stucco and a dry Delabole slate roof with wide eaves, along with a hipped return on the left and a rendered brick stack on the right. It has a shallow plan with two rooms at the front flanking a central hall, plus two small service wings at the rear. The villa is two storeys high with a symmetrical three-window front.

The central doorway is elliptically-headed and features rustication, a distyle Doric porch with elliptically arched front and sides, circles to the frieze, and a moulded cornice. The door is from the 20th century and has a traceried fanlight. Additional details include a plinth, terminal fluted pilasters (also found on the one-window front facing Edward Street), and keyblocks. The ground floor has sashes with margin panes, while the upper floor has 16-pane sashes, all of which are horned copies. Inside, the left-hand room retains an original moulded and carved plaster ceiling cornice, but the rest of the interior has not been inspected.