Number 1 And Attached Forecourt Wall And Railings

This is a house with attached forecourt walls and railings, dating from around 1833, designed by George Wightwick for John Marshall. It is located at the end of a planned crescent on the Hoe in Plymouth.

The house is constructed of stucco, with stucco detailing, and has a dry slate mansard roof hidden behind a stepped parapet, featuring a central break and a brick stack on the right. It follows a double-depth plan, with an axial entrance hall accessed from the left side of the building. The exterior is three storeys plus an attic over a basement, and has a four-bay front. The design features channelled rustication and segmental arches on an impost string to the ground floor, with a giant Ionic round-arched arcade above, and stepped panels between the first and second-floor windows. Ground and second-floor windows are sash windows with original glazing bars; the first floor has transomed casements, likely providing access to former iron balconies. The left-hand return shows three bays, with a narrower central entrance bay, divided by pilasters and featuring approximately round arches to the upper floors. Ground-floor openings are within recessed panels with segmental arches, and are largely blind except for the entrance bay and the ground-floor window on the left. The round-arched doorway has panelled pilasters with roundels, a 20th-century overlight, a door and sidelights.

The interior, as described in former listing documentation, includes a good interior with an oval staircase well and a segmental saucer-shaped dome covering the staircase. There are doorcases on the hall and landing with a key motif or incised friezes, and a vaulted vestibule. A first-floor room and ante room feature cornices and key-motif architraves, with segmental end walls. Two ground-floor rooms have acanthus-leaf decorated cornices, and one features a key-motif frieze.

The forecourt walls are topped by wrought-iron railings with arrow-head finials, set upon a plinth. This is a fine example of its type, and was part of an important planned group of terraces and villas designed by Foulston and his pupil Wightwick on the Hoe, a scheme that positioned Plymouth at the forefront of town planning in the early to mid 19th century.