30 and 32 Wonford Road, Exeter

A pair of houses at 30 and 32 Wonford Road, Exeter, dating to circa 1830. Number 32 remains substantially intact, while number 30 was bombed during the Second World War and rebuilt around 1955.

The houses are constructed of stuccoed brick or brick and stone walling, with slate roofs. Number 32 retains its original timber sash windows throughout, while number 30 has had its windows replaced in uPVC except on the front elevation.

Both houses follow a double-depth plan on a corner plot and were originally designed to mirror each other. The internal layout of number 30 was altered when it was rebuilt following bomb damage.

Architecturally, the houses are styled in a simplified Italianate manner, each comprising two storeys with a basement (visible only at the rear) and an attic storey. Each property has a two-bay front with entrances on the returns.

The front elevation is conceived as a unified design with a gable treated as a pediment, featuring a deep cornice with verges on shaped brackets and a stucco band to the verges. Plain pilasters stand to the left, right, and centre, with a plat band at first-floor level and a stucco band beneath the pediment cornice. Each house has two ground-floor and two first-floor eight-over-eight sash windows. The right return contains similar ground- and first-floor windows to the left, with a six-panelled door beneath a flat canopy porch supported on slender posts. A two-over-two window set low down lights the basement on this elevation, which also features pilasters and an eaves band. A raking dormer with timber casements sits in the roof slope above the entrance. The front door to number 30 is positioned in a recessed block to the left. The left return displays two windows of varying sizes and an entrance door, all now in uPVC.

To the rear, the two houses differ significantly. The left-hand house (number 32) has a projecting gabled stair wing rising to first-floor level and retains its sash windows, which diminish in size towards the attic. The right-hand house (number 30), rebuilt circa 1955, features a square bay window rising through both ground and first floors with large uPVC windows; other windows are set in enlarged openings and vary in size and style. A rooflight sits in the slope above number 30. Wide brick stacks with various chimney pots flank the apex. Number 32 has been extended to the rear at basement level, creating a new room with a glazed monopitch roof.

Number 32 largely retains its original interior layout, with a single room to the front and another to the rear flanking a straight stair on both ground and first floors; the attic is divided into three rooms. The basement has been extended to form a single large room. The house preserves early 19th-century timber fire surrounds in the ground- and first-floor rooms, each with moulded cornices. Windows retain moulded surrounds and shutters. Some early 19th-century four-panel doors survive. The stair to the first and attic floors features a balustrade of turned newels with stick balusters and a ramped handrail; the attic retains a smaller timber fire surround.

Number 30 has modern internal finishes, some contemporary with its 1950s rebuilding and others from later periods. The ground-floor layout broadly reflects the original configuration, but the first-floor and attic arrangements differ, with three rooms created on each level. The ground-floor front room contains a late 20th-century fireplace positioned approximately where an original fireplace would have been located. All other fixtures and finishes are 20th-century in style and materials, predominantly from the later 20th century.