Pointfield And Emslake House

A pair of attached houses built in 1847 as a speculative venture by William Joseph Little, with later alterations. The houses are constructed of rendered material with a hipped, slightly bellcast roof. There are end stacks and a ridge stack slightly to the left.

The plan is of two attached houses, each with a side porch leading to a longitudinal passage. This passage provides access to two principal rooms at the front of each house; the right-hand room of Emslake House is the larger. Service rooms are located to the rear, with a staircase along the rear wall of the passage. Pointfield has two bays to the left, and Emslake House has three bays to the right.

The houses stand on a plinth with rusticated V-jointed quoins. They present a nearly symmetrical facade of two bays to three bays, and at the first floor, all windows are 12-pane sashes with segmental heads and moulded architraves. Ground-floor windows are tall 2-light casements of three panes each, with overlights. A canopy veranda with a lead roof extends along the front, featuring crossed bracing, forming a frieze under the eaves and vertical panels acting as posts.

The right side of Emslake House features a flat-roofed porch with pilasters and a blocking course, a panelled and half-glazed door with a cross-glazed overlight, and a moulded string course that continues around the porch. A round-headed sash window with radial glazing bars illuminates the stairwell at the first floor, and rusticated quoins are present on the right. The left side of Pointfield has an external stack with horizontally rusticated detail, rusticated quoins, and a moulded string course. It also features a flat-roofed porch with a cornice and blocking course, pilasters, a four-panelled door with a cross-glazed overlight, and a similar round-headed stair light at the first floor. A single-story greenhouse is attached to the rear of the left side.

The rear of Emslake House has a 12-pane sash window at ground and first floor to the right and left of a shallow two-story service wing. This wing has been extended to the rear with a single-story lean-to, featuring a 12-pane sash window on the right side at both ground and first floors, a half-glazed door on the left side, and a C20 window and door within the lean-to.

The rear of Pointfield mirrors this arrangement, with 12-pane sash windows at ground and first floor to the right and left of a similar shallow two-story service wing. A 15-pane sash window is located at ground floor to the left of the wing, and a band course runs along the rear of both houses. The wing has a hipped roof; on the left side is a half-glazed door and a single light at first floor, and the end has a C20 12-pane sash window at ground and first floor.

The interiors feature a straight staircase along the rear wall of the passage, with a scroll-carved string, stick balusters, and a wreathed grip handrail. A modillion cornice is present in the passage and on the first-floor landing. Principal rooms on both ground and first floors have egg and dart cornices. The first-floor principal room in Pointfield has a coloured marble chimney piece with paired pilasters, while the ground-floor principal room in Emslake House has a marble chimney piece with moulded pilasters and roundels. The houses contain four-panelled doors and panelled shutters to the windows, and stone floors in the rear service rooms.

Emslake House was formerly called Hancocks House, and the pair were also known as Nos. 1 and 2 Anderton Villas.