1-15, Wellswood Park Road

The terraced houses at 1-15 Wellswod Park Road, Torquay, were built in 1853 to designs by the Harvey brothers. They are designated as a building of group value, recognized for their exceptional architectural and historical significance.

The three terraces, comprising five houses each, are laid out around a three-acre private park, with each house having a small garden facing onto the park. The houses are stuccoed and have slate roofs, with rendered stacks featuring deep projecting cornices. A notable feature of their design is the unusual plan: each house is two rooms wide but four rooms deep. The central rooms are lit by light wells created by a double roof structure, which is not visible externally. Both a principal and a service entrance are provided from the road, with service quarters occupying the rear of one side of each house. A suite of rooms located off the half-landing of the staircase provides four rooms at that level, with an additional three or four rooms on the first floor.

The road elevation typically presents a three-bay facade, with the central bay broken forward and gabled. Pilasters, a moulded cornice below a parapet, and a platband below the cornice are prominent. The central doorway has a segmental-headed form, featuring a moulded architrave and a recessed panelled front door with a fanlight. A floating cornice is supported by consoles above the front door. A round-headed window, with a moulded architrave and double-hung sash with radial glazing bars, is centrally located on the first floor. Recessed 12-pane sashes are found on either side, while a 12-pane sash window with a sunk apron and floating cornice on moulded brackets is situated to the right of the front door. The service entrance, to the left of the main door, is recessed and has a plain overlight flanked by fixed 8-pane windows with sunk aprons. The front garden elevations exhibit an eaves band, moulded eaves brackets, paired at the dividing pilasters, which themselves have pedimented gables. A first-floor sill band runs along the front. First-floor windows are paired 12-pane sashes with Venetian shutters, while ground-floor windows are 4 over 6-pane sashes with proud architraves and floating cornices on consoles, with one ground-floor French window featuring a transome. Most houses retain four-bay tent roof trellis verandahs. The external detail of most of the houses is largely intact, including original glass and bootscrapers, though some minor alterations have occurred. No. 7 is missing its roadside block.

The interior of No. 11, the only house inspected, retains original joinery, including doors, doorcases with masons' mitres, skirting boards, a staircase with turned balusters and a mahogany ramped wreathed handrail, and good plaster cornices in the principal rooms. Wellswod Park is a fine example of ingenious internal planning within a distinguished terrace, and the relationship between the buildings and the park represents an exceptionally attractive example of suburban design.