St Cecilia'S

St Cecilia’s is a pair of attached houses, now combined into a school building, dated 1743 and extended in the early 19th century. The left-hand house was added during the early to mid-19th century. The building is constructed of red brick with darker brick surrounds, rubbed brick dressings, limestone ashlar, a sandstone flagged terrace, a slate hipped roof, and lateral and gable stacks. It follows a double-depth plan with early 19th-century projecting wings flanking a raised platform.

The building is two storeys, with an attic and cellar, and has a 2:7-window front. A symmetrical front features projecting single-window ashlar wings connected by a raised terrace, with a rusticated ashlar central section, cornice, and parapet. Doorways are set one window’s width in from the ends of the central range, featuring architraves with broken pediments topped with balls on console brackets. The doors are six-panel, the right-hand one incorporating a good octagonal lantern in the overlight. The central brick range includes cill bands, a first-floor drip course, panelled aprons, and windows with a plat band and cornice of varying moulding, keyed architraves, segmental heads, and horned 6/6-pane sashes. The wings have horned recessed 6/6-pane sashes, with a 15/15-pane sash on the right-hand first floor. Steps lead up to the doorways through the terrace, with low terrace cellar windows, the former railings of which have been removed. A good original downpipe and hopper are dated 1743. The left-hand two-window house has a door on the right-hand side and a horned 6/6-pane sash window. The right-hand return elevation includes a second-floor cross window.

The rear elevation was rebuilt around 1840 in a Domestic Tudor style, featuring a central projecting gable with a full-height five-light canted bay and cross windows with labels.

Internally, the building was altered in the mid-19th century. Features include an axial passage with semicircular arches, a stair hall on the right-hand side with a timber open-well stair, curtail, and late 19th-century wrought-iron railings. A front room contains 17th-century oak linenfold panelling and a boxed cornice, along with a cast-iron hob grate and stone surround. Vaulted cellars are also present. The mid-18th-century house is a good example of an early semi-detached house. A portion formerly listed as No.9 Curzon Street was added to the list on 8th July 1976.