121 and 123 Farleigh Road

A pair of semi-detached houses built around 1895 and designed by Walter Cave.

The building is constructed from roughly-coursed, dressed pennant sandstone with areas of rendering and applied close-studded timbering to the first floor. Windows are timber-framed with leaded glazing, and the roof is tiled with rendered chimney stacks and a stucco cornice.

The plan consists of a linear main range running parallel with Farleigh Road, with a wing projecting to the rear (north-west) at either end. The two houses have mirrored L-shaped footprints with a central service wing between them.

The exterior is a two-storey composition in Vernacular Revival style with meandering, highly varied and asymmetrical elevations. The design features a series of projecting gabled bays with roughcast finish, with recessed planes showing roughly-coursed rubble on the ground floor and close-studded timbering above. The bays are lit by large leaded windows, generally Ipswich style on the ground floor with casements above. Windows in recessed sections are smaller pairs of casements. There is no obvious distinction between the two houses from the street.

At the lower, south-west end of the building, a tower-like feature rises with stone walls topped by a deep stone band forming a slight jetty to the timbered first floor. Double-height projecting bays with quadrant angles feature wrap-around Ipswich windows to each storey, topped with deep cornices with dentil courses and mouldings. The principal south-east elevation is fronted by low rubble stone walls from which rise Tuscan columns with entasis, supporting a flat-roofed veranda interrupted by the gabled projections. At the right-hand (top of slope) end, the pitched roof runs parallel with the road, and the return elevation has a double-height bay with quadrant angles matching the opposite end.

The north-west facing elevation has gabled wings at either end with a central single-storey service wing. At number 121, the space between the wings has been infilled and a conservatory built on the south-west elevation. At number 123, a small first-floor extension has been built, supported on a post above the back door.

Interior ground floors contain three principal rooms—kitchen, dining and lounge—arranged around a hall and stair. Some reconfiguration has occurred with alterations to external openings, and number 121 has inserted partitioning. Original joinery survives with slight stylistic variation between the two houses in skirtings and architraves. Doors are four-panel or ledge and plank types. Some glazing has been replaced to match the original windows, and many original cast iron catches and stays remain. Chimney stacks are set at angles in room corners; most fireplaces have been removed or replaced, except in number 121's lounge, which retains a moulded timber surround with reeded uprights, panelling and mantel shelves, a cast iron fireplace with tiled slip and hearth, and an inscribed panel reading '19 W B C 11'. Stairs have stick balusters, square newel posts and moulded, curved handrails. Number 123 contains a first-floor extension with a bathroom.