Oxford Hotel Grosvenor Place (Terrace) With Railings

The Oxford Hotel, Grosvenor Place, with its railings, comprises a pair of houses forming part of a terrace in Weymouth. The building dates to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Number 31 is rendered with a scribed finish and has a Portland stone flank wall; number 32 is faced with painted brickwork. Both have rear walls of brickwork and slate roofs. The terrace returns to St Alban Street on the left, where a former entrance has been blocked. Number 31 was originally a two-storey double-fronted house, raised by a further storey in the early 19th century, while number 32 was added slightly set back around the same time. The frontages are largely 19th century, with a 20th-century roof storey.

The building is three storeys high, with an attic and basement, and has a two-window frontage for each house. Late 20th-century dormers with steel sashes are visible in the roof. Each house features a three-storey, plain-sashed canted oriel. Number 31’s oriels have pilaster mullions, while those of number 32 feature fluted friezes to the individual sashes. Basement windows are tripartite sashes in narrow areas. To the left of the oriel in number 32 is a doorway with a glazed door under an elliptical fanlight, set within a Doric pilaster doorcase with a fluted frieze and dentil entablature, approached by seven steps. Plat bands are visible at ground and first floor levels. Number 31 has a moulded cornice, dying to the panelled skirts of the oriels at first floor level, which are further embellished with dentil cornices. The added second floor has a small modillion cornice, and a continuous moulded cornice runs along the top. Number 32 has plat bands and a small blocking-course with a coped parapet, and its oriels feature dentil cornices at each level. Stacked chimneys are present at each gable end.

The return to St Alban Street is built of painted Portland stone block, with brickwork in the top storey. Four-pane and various multi-pane sash windows are visible, along with a blocked doorway, formerly the entrance to number 31. A one-bay extension with a flat roof includes a sixteen-pane sash. The rear elevation is faced with unpainted English bond brickwork, with hipped dormers and large, plain sashes in flush boxes.

The interior has been considerably modified, but retains a full-height dogleg staircase with a stick balustrade and a swept handrail.

Area railings run along the frontages. Those of number 31 are lightweight and spearhead-shaped, with returned quadrants at each end. Number 32's railings are more robust, with urn finials and bold standards, returned to the right of the steps to the door.

The building was originally constructed as two separate houses and was later used as workrooms and showrooms by Gieves, naval tailors, with staff accommodation in the attic.