14-24, WESLEY STREET

A terrace of eleven early to mid-19th century houses is located on Wesley Street, Weymouth. The buildings are constructed of Flemish bond brickwork, with some areas painted and others rendered, all under slate roofs. Original brick facades remain on numbers 14, 15, 18, 21 and 22, while numbers 16, 19 and 20 have painted brickwork.

Each house is three storeys high and has a single window front. The windows are sash windows in plain reveals. A bold, projecting oriel window sits above a sash window, and a doorway with a shallow, elliptical fanlight sits at ground floor. Most second-floor sashes have 12 panes, except for numbers 21, 22 and 23, which have 16 panes, and numbers 14 and 16, which have 4 panes. The oriels generally have plain sashes, but those at numbers 20 to 24 have glazing bars, mostly with 4 panes on the ground floor, and 12 panes on the upper floors. Number 14, at the right-hand end of the terrace, has a larger former shop window with 6 panes and extends two bays to Commercial Road, matching the detailing and including two oriels. The original 6-panelled doors remain at numbers 14, 21 and 24; the others have been replaced.

The buildings have a stone plinth, a mid-level stone band, and a second-floor sill band. Each property has a party wall ridge stack, except for the first unit, which has two larger brick stacks below the ridge. The rear of the houses features sash windows with bars on the second floor, a smaller light, and sash windows on the ground and first floors, plus a two-storey gabled wing to the right.

The terrace was built in at least three phases, with a break between numbers 20 and 21, and a difference in total roof span. The corner unit on Commercial Road has a slightly higher eaves line. The interior of the houses has not been inspected, but the terrace remains a good example of local vernacular architecture. While some alterations have been made, primarily to windows and doors, it is complemented by other properties on the opposite side of the street and forms a consistent piece of speculative development alongside Bath Street, dating from the early 19th century.