81 and 82, St Thomas Street

Nos. 81 and 82 St Thomas Street are a pair of houses that were once a rectory, built in the late 18th century. They feature Flemish bond brickwork and a slate double roof with a transverse central valley. The buildings stand three storeys high with attics and have three windows on each floor, all of which are sash windows set in plaster-lined and painted reveals, adorned with fine rubbed brick voussoirs. There are four hipped dormers with six-pane windows in wide surrounds, positioned above six-pane windows with stone sills on the second floor and deep twelve-pane windows with a moulded Portland stone sill band on the first floor. In No. 81, the first three first-floor windows have been cut back from the sill, resulting in smaller bottom panes. The ground floor features a wide opening with a steel lintel and a blocked wide arched doorway with an elliptical head for each house. A stone moulded cornice serves as a blocking-course, and there are double gable stacks at the coped verges. The rear of the houses includes two hipped dormers with six-pane sash windows and two roof-lights above two sets of two windows, all temporarily blocked, with the blocking-course rendered. A deep but narrow later wing extends between the first and second bays. The interior has not been inspected. This pair of houses is notably grand in the Georgian style and is set back significantly from the street. Until around 1990, shops projected forward to the street line, but their removal and the restoration of the original ground-floor detail have greatly improved the building and the street. At the time of the survey, the houses were empty and undergoing restoration.