4, Union Terrace

This is a circa 1760 house with additions from the 1860s, located on Union Terrace in Crediton. It is a particularly fine and well-preserved example of an 18th-century house, one of a row of good Georgian properties. The construction is primarily Flemish bond brick, with a slate roof and end stacks with brick shafts. The house follows an L-shaped plan, with a service access provided via a cartway to the left. The main block is single-depth, comprising two rooms wide with a central entrance. A rear left service wing completes the plan.

The symmetrical three-bay front has deep eaves and a moulded eaves cornice, embellished with a frieze of mutules and rosettes. Platbands are present at both the first and second floor levels. A grand, round-headed doorway is centrally positioned, featuring a six-panel front door with panelled reveals and a fanlight with patterned glazing bars. The doorcase is composed of composite columns and an entablature with a frieze of mutules and paterae below the cornice. The original windows retain guaged brick flat arches and some old glass; the ground floor windows are tripartite sashes with 12 panes in the centre and 4 in each outer light. First-floor windows are similar, with a 12-pane sash centred. Second-floor tripartite windows have a 3/6-pane bottom sash and a fixed upper tier of panes. The rear elevation displays a tall, round-headed stair window which cuts across the staircase. A panelled service door is located on the left return, providing access to a service passage from the cartway.

The interior retains numerous 18th-century features, including marble and timber chimney-pieces – marble in the principal rooms and timber elsewhere – ornate plaster cornices, and original joinery such as skirtings, two-panel doors, shutters and window reveals. A significant and rare survival is the series of 18th-century cupboards in the service passage. A fine, circa mid-18th-century open-well stick baluster staircase is present, featuring a mahogany handrail and newels. Encaustic tiling from the 1860s decorates the passageway.