St David'S

St David's is a terrace of ten houses built between 1792 and 1800. The houses are three stories high, originally designed with two windows each, and are faced with stucco. The terrace follows a slight curve and Nos 1 and 1½ are stepped forward at the beginning. The design includes a moulded cornice and blocking course, with low-pitched hipped slate roofs.

Two houses form a separate block with a pediment over the centre and a mansard slate roof, likely intended as the central feature of the terrace. The uneven number of houses on either side of this central block suggests the terrace was not fully completed. The two houses are linked to the adjacent houses by single-story porches with three-bay Tuscan colonnades, with corresponding pilasters to the wall. Each porch has two six-panel double doors and a central window, with recessed panels and semi-circular fanlights featuring delicate radial swagged glazing bars. Balustraded parapets top the porches. Between Nos 6 and 7, two stories have been added with rectangular bay windows having tent roofs on the first floor.

Most houses have wooden trellis balconies with tent-shaped canopies on the first floor, although the balcony of No 8 has earlier iron railings. A print from 1815 shows the terrace without balconies. The windows are recessed sash windows on the ground and second floors, with much of the glazing bars now missing. French windows are located on the first floor. Aside from the entrances in the colonnaded porches, the other houses have six-panel doors with semi-circular radial glazed fanlights. No 1 has a recessed entrance bay with a tent-roofed glazed porch and No 10 has a porch with an entablature to the side. Each house has an area enclosed by spike railings with urn finials.

A relief of a double-headed eagle is displayed in the pediment of this central block, commemorating a visit by Grand Duchess Helene of Russia (sister-in-law of the Tsar) at No 8 in 1831. Lord Gwydir resided at No 1 while his villa was being built in 1815, and it is reported that George IV, as Prince of Wales, visited him there.

The terrace, together with its pavement, forms a significant group.