51-53, Exeter Street

Nos. 51-53 on Exeter Street is a terrace of three cottages built in 1846 for the Great Western Railway Company as part of a new village designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to accommodate workers for the railway works. The cottages are constructed from dressed squared rubble, with rubble at the rear, and feature ashlar quoins and dressings. They have slate roofs, with asbestos cement slate on the rear. Each cottage is two stories high and consists of one bay. There are 20th-century brick stacks on the gable and party walls. The buildings have a chamfered plinth and chamfered windows and door openings, with the latter featuring pyramidal stops. The inset doors are set on a splay and accessed by two steps, and each has an eighteen-pane design. The cottages also have four-pane sash windows on both floors. They were extensively renovated around 1974. This terrace is part of one of Britain’s best-preserved and architecturally ambitious railway settlements.