Devonshire Buildings (Terrace)

Devonshire Buildings is a terrace of six houses built around 1805 to 1819, situated at the southern end of the Weymouth Esplanade. The construction uses Flemish bond brickwork, topped with slate mansard roofs. The terrace includes double-fronted houses at each end, single houses in between, and a full-height rounded bow at the eastern end, which replaced the original house.

The exterior features 14 flat-roofed dormers with six-pane sashes, 14 nine-pane sashes at the second floor, and two-storey sash windows with twelve, eight and twelve panes, topped by a decorative dentil cornice. Painted sills are splayed under the windows. A plain plinth runs along the ground floor, while a moulded cornice, rendered blocking course, and stone parapet top the building, with six sashes at the first floor. Basements have sash windows with a central mullion, recessed behind the oriels. Six six-panel doors sit beneath plain fanlights within brick arched reveals and are accessed by a flight of five stone steps with nosings and a simple wrought-iron rail. The mansard roofs have paired brick stacks, with a central valley between Nos. 3 and 6, and a single stack to No. 2 which is more shallow. The rounded eastern end is rendered with a twelve, sixteen and sixteen pane sash window in plain reveals, with the cornice and parapet continuing to this end. The western end, adjoining Pulteney Buildings, features a single bay return with blind openings, the ground floor one being arched.

The rear of the terrace is predominantly brickwork with four dormers directly over multi-level, multi-pane sash windows, alongside two deep stair sashes. The building steps back at the eastern end in two sections, one featuring three sashes flanked by 20th-century flat-roofed extensions.

Inside No. 1, named The Roundhouse, is a full-height stick baluster staircase with original cornices. The terrace retains much of its original external detail and has largely avoided the commercial changes seen in other parts of the Esplanade. A few windows have lost their original glazing bars.