Balcony Cottage The Balcony

Pair of attached houses circa 1750, located on the west side of Garrett Street in Cawsand. Built of mixed slatestone and red sandstone rubble with quoins and brick dressings, the left side is rendered. The roof is slate with gable end stacks.

The building presents an angled front with Balcony Cottage to the left and The Balcony to the right. Balcony Cottage has a central entrance with rooms to either side and a stair hall to the rear centre. The Balcony has two rooms to the front with a stair hall and rear service wing to the left.

Both houses are three storeys. Balcony Cottage features a central flat-roofed wooden porch with a glazed upper part and panelled inner door. The ground floor has four-pane sashes to right and left, with two four-pane sashes at first floor level, all with brick segmental heads. There are two twentieth-century windows under the eaves. A modillion cornice is carried over both houses. The Balcony has a twentieth-century door to the right of the entrance, with four-pane sashes to right and left at ground floor. The first floor has a twentieth-century window and a four-pane sash with brick segmental heads, and two four-pane sashes at second floor level.

Balcony Cottage retains exceptionally fine eighteenth-century interior features. The ground-floor room to the right has a pair of cupboards with shaped shelves and moulded surrounds, and ovolo-moulded panelling to the left wall. The room to the left contains a fireplace with an eared architrave and dentil cornice to the mantel. All walls have fielded panelling with a dado rail and a cornice in tiers of mouldings including egg and dart, with a two-panelled fielded door. Cupboards flanking the fireplace have reeded pilasters with segmental heads featuring a key and circular fretwork design, with panelled doors below. The plan is unusual in placing the stair hall to the rear of the two principal front rooms. This hall also has fielded panelling and two-panelled doors, with the rear door featuring strap hinges. To the rear left, a dog-leg stair with Chinoiserie panels rises to the second floor.

At first floor, the room to the left has an eared architrave to the fireplace, a panelled partition wall between the two front rooms and two-panelled doors. The room to the right has panelled cupboards on each side of a similar fireplace.

The Balcony has a small entrance porch with two-panelled doors to rooms to right and left. The room to the right features a fine plaster frieze with scroll and beading, a dado rail and a corner cupboard with panelled and glazed doors. A winder stair with stick balusters is located in the stair hall to the rear left. At first floor, there are two-panelled doors, two front rooms and one to the rear over the service wing. The front left room has a panelled partition wall; the room to the right has panelled cupboards with L and H hinges. At second floor, there are two-panelled doors and panelled cupboards, with the left room having a rear partition wall that is panelled.

Balcony Cottage in particular exemplifies the high standard of internal detail characteristic of Cawsand. The fireplaces with eared architraves are a particularly local feature. A similar staircase with Chinoiserie panels exists at Island Cottage, The Cleave, Kingsand and No. 2 Market Street, Kingsand. Similar cupboards and plasterwork can be found at The Old Ship Inn, Garrett Street.

Some later alterations have been made to the exterior.