Lisburne Crescent (Terrace)

The terrace at Lisburne Crescent comprises nine houses built in 1853, likely designed by an architect as yet unidentified. The terrace was constructed on land belonging to the Palk family and named in honour of Sir Lawrence Palk’s second wife, Elizabeth Ellis. It is an example of the Italianate style.

The terrace is laid out in a concave shape. Each house is double-depth, one room wide, with a piano nobile (main floor). Service blocks are located to the rear of the houses and are listed separately.

The houses are three storeys high with a regular three-bay facade for each. The front doors are located to the right of each house. The facade features a deep projecting eaves cornice supported by a modillion frieze on richly-moulded paired brackets. A parapet with a balustrade of roundels and ovals is interrupted by short piers, some topped with pineapple finials at the party walls.

The houses alternate between two types: Type A projects forward and has rusticated pilasters on the ground floor and a moulded string to the first floor. The round-headed doorway is set within a rusticated surround, leading to a recessed four-panel front door with a plain fanlight above. The ground-floor windows also have rusticated surrounds with plain panels over the lintels. The first-floor windows have moulded architraves and floating cornices on consoles, with central pediments. Sunk panels are below the sills, and pilasters have sunk panels and lozenges of vermiculated rustication. The second-floor windows have sill blocks. Type B is set back and is similar, except the ground-floor windows have rusticated surrounds and the first-floor windows lack consoles to the floating cornices. All windows are 12-pane sashes except for those on the first floor, which are 8-pane. Some windows retain the remains of fascias for sun blinds. Number 9, at the right end of the terrace, is symmetrical, with a single-storey entrance block to the left that features a pedimented gable, pineapple finials, and a round-headed doorway with a four-panel door and a plain fanlight.

The interior of the houses has not been inspected, but historic features may remain.