Royal Terrace With Railings

Royal Terrace with railings comprises two houses situated at the southern end of Royal Terrace, Weymouth, built around 1818. The buildings are constructed of Flemish bond brickwork with a slate roof. They follow a typical one-room width, double-depth plan, featuring a double roof forming a central valley, and a side entry leading to a rear dogleg staircase and lower service range.

The exterior is three storeys high, with an attic and basement that develops into a full storey at the rear, each house featuring three windows. There are two late 19th-century sash gabled dormers with decorative bargeboards and finials. Number 68 has a plain sash window at the second floor, while Number 69 has two-light casements with a top light. First-floor sash windows are 15-paned and extend to floor level, with an external balcony supported by cast-iron brackets and featuring original cast-iron railings. Ground floor windows are 12-paned, and the basement, rendered in appearance, has replica 9-pane sashes, one of which has been blocked. The arched doorway to Number 68 has deep reveals, a transom light, and a bold Doric portico with an entablature and heavy blocking course, accessed by six stone steps with nosings, flanked by stone walls. Number 69 features an original eight-panel door within an arched opening in two orders, incorporating a radial fanlight and reeded transom. All windows possess stone sills, brick voussoirs at first floor, and splayed rendered lintels to the second floor. A floor band is present at the basement and first floor levels, topped by a moulded cornice, blocking course, and parapet, with identical details returned on the left-hand end. This section was rebuilt in 1857 when Westham Road was widened, resulting in a full-width bowed front with a flat-roofed three-light dormer above three plain sashes, and a bowed oriel at first floor constructed in stone, part of 20th-century commercial premises attached. Two stacks are located on the shared party wall of each house. The rear wall similarly features a parapet and central two-light flat-roofed dormers.

An inspection of the interior of Number 69 revealed a layout and detailing typical of the terrace, including a full-height staircase with a stick balustrade (partially encased) and most of the original six-panel doors in reeded architraves. Original spearhead railings, set on a stone curb, run across the front of each house, returning to the doorway of Number 69, stopping at the porch of Number 68, with a gate at the right end leading to stone basement staircases. Royal Terrace originally comprised 18 houses, with three units at each end slightly higher and projecting from the rest; Numbers 68 and 69 represent the two remaining units from the southern end. Numbers 68-72 were begun approximately two years after the initial construction. Number 68 was also listed on 18 June, 1970.