Frederick Place (Terrace)

Frederick Place is a terrace of 12 houses on St Thomas Street in Weymouth, completed around 1834. It represents a fine example of early 19th-century speculative development, with a standardised facade to the street but varied interior arrangements and rear elevations reflecting differing requirements during construction.

The terrace is constructed in Flemish bond yellow brickwork, though Nos 1-5 have rendered facades along with rendered returns and rear walls. The buildings sit on ashlar basement walls and are covered with slate roofs. The terrace presents a unified three-storey frontage with attic and basement levels, featuring nine flat-roofed dormers behind a parapet.

Each house is two windows wide. The original design comprised two 9-pane sashes to the second floor above a two-storey bowed oriel with 8:12:8-pane sashes positioned near-centre, with a blind window to the left at first floor level. The ground floor featured an arched doorway in two recessed orders containing a 6-panel door beneath a reeded transom and plain fanlight. The doorway sits on seven plus one stone steps with nosings, flanked by spearhead railings that return to the doorway and run across the frontage, with a gate at the right end providing access to tight stone winder stairs serving the basement area. A large sash in the plane of the wall was located beneath the oriel in the basement. Plat bands mark the first and second floor levels, and a moulded stone cornice with blocking course and coped parapet caps the facade.

Alterations have been extensive. Nos 1-5 have lost their railings and steps, and their basement areas have been covered. No.1 has a canted dormer with the parapet cut away in front and a 20th-century shop frontage extending to Westham Road. No.2 has the oriel relocated to first and second floors rather than ground and first, lacks glazing bars, features a full-width 20th-century dormer and 20th-century shop front. No.3 has a 20th-century shop front. No.4 retains the oriel in the position of Nos 1 and 2 with glazing bars to the upper half of sashes only, a wide dormer with the parapet dropped in front, and a 19th-century pilaster shop front with fascia and cornice inflected to the oriel above; the glazing has slender mullions and curved glass ends, serving a pair of splayed doors under transom lights, beneath a range of lights with diagonal bars across the full width including the recess. No.5 has the oriel without glazing bars and a 20th-century shop front. Nos 1-5 have no stacks visible, having been cropped or removed. Nos 6, 9 and 12 also feature shop fronts and basement area covers. Nos 9, 10 and 12 have 4-pane sashes with plain sashed oriels.

The Westham Road return elevation features a very broad coped gable with a wide central stack concealing a central valley. It is three windows wide, with a central recessed arched panel containing a blind lunette over a 9-pane sash, and a small canted oriel with plain sash displaced to the left. Each side carries sashes with six panes (probably originally 12-paned), except the second floor right which has a 2-light casement replacement. A 20th-century shop front with piers continues below a 20th-century extension to the right. The left-hand return, adjoining the Masonic Hall, is plain and rises to a high parapet beyond the gable stack.

The rear elevation to Great George Street is considerably more varied, reflecting piecemeal development behind the standardised front. No.1 has a high double-gable roof with later extensions. Nos 2-5 have a deep mansard rear slope with dormers at two levels, with some glazing-bar sashes remaining below. No.6 features an original small central 6-pane dormer behind a parapet, with sashes above containing 9, 12 and 12 panes respectively, plus a deep 27-paned stair window to the right; a flat-roofed extension is present at lower ground floor. No.7 has two similar dormers and parapet with two 9- above 12-paned sashes, and at upper ground floor two pairs of French doors with margin-panes opening to a slate-roofed verandah on trellis supports and balustrade; the lower ground floor has a 4-pane sash and doorway. No.8 has two good dormers and parapet above plain sashes, appears to have been built as a pair with No.7 (now lacking the verandah), and has a large 20th-century flat-roofed extension. Nos 9 and 10 are less deep than adjoining houses but maintain parapet height; No.9 has two dormers and No.10 has one, with sash arrangements as No.6. Nos 11 and 12 each have a single 6-pane dormer with varied lights and extensions below.

Interior inspection has not been generally undertaken, but No.7 contains a stick baluster stair at the rear left, panelled window shutters, and reeded cornices. This building exemplifies speculative development of the period, where the street facade was predetermined but subsequent completion varied according to individual requirements.

The terrace developed on what was previously garden ground belonging to Gloucester Lodge, with Westham Road created at the time of development.