Elliot Terrace Numbers 1 To 8 Including 6A And Walls And Gate Piers

Elliot Terrace, Numbers 1 to 8 (including 6A) with walls and gate-piers, The Promenade, Hoe, Plymouth

A planned terrace of nine houses in mid 19th-century Italianate style with palace front, possibly designed by George Wightwick. The terrace forms one of the most prominent compositions on the Hoe and is part of an important planned group of terraces and villas by Foulston and his pupil Wightwick that placed Plymouth in the forefront of early to mid 19th-century town planning.

The terrace is constructed of stucco with stucco detailing. The roof is of dry slate mansard with hipped returns at the ends, behind an incomplete parapet featuring a heavy moulded cornice with modillions and dentils. One house has a complete parapet with oculi to its left, another has part of a similar parapet to its right, and the fifth house from the left has a complete balustraded parapet. Stuccoed copings and stacks sit over the cross walls, with stacks displaying modillion cornices. Each house has three round-arched attic windows.

The terrace is arranged with seven houses facing the Hoe and two facing left and right. The plan comprises a double-depth arrangement with integral service wings to the rear. The elevation is four storeys plus attic over basement, with seven three-window fronts where the central and end bays are broken forward. Round-arched openings, most retaining original sashes, punctuate the facade.

Extensive original stucco detailing includes channelled rustication to the ground floor and pilastered sash boxes. Modillion cornices above ground level support a balcony with paired balustrades. The first floor features recessed arches with dentilled imposts and cornices between paired brackets supporting a balustraded balcony, with ogee-arched sashes. The second floor displays pilasters, consoles and hoods with sashes featuring round-arched lights. The upper floor has a sill string, moulded impost string and arches, spandrel panels, and recessed paired sashes with pilastered boxes and round-arched lights.

Two paired porches, centrally positioned to the paired recessed houses, feature Corinthian columns, entablature and modillion cornices, with panelled doors and plain fanlights. The central house has a doorway to its left; the end houses have doorways on their 2:3-window return elevations, which feature similar detailing to the front elevation. These return elevations and the rear retain most of the original stucco detail and original hornless sashes.

The left-hand return is arranged 2:1:1:4 bays with two doorways. The right-hand return comprises a five-window range with a service wing to its right. The rear elevation displays a stepped parapet with a five-window range to the upper floor of each house.

Although not inspected, the interior is likely to contain features reflecting the richly-detailed exterior.

The forecourt is enclosed by freestone and dressed granite walls with granite gate-piers featuring plinths and moulded caps.