1 And 2, The Retreat

This is an early or mid-18th century house located in a back court off Gold Street in Tiverton. The front facade is red brick on a stone rubble plinth, with the front and right-hand side rendered and partly painted. It has a slate roof and red brick chimneys on the left side wall and rear wall.

The house is three storeys high, with a semi-basement and garret, and includes a single-storey lean-to addition to the left. It originally had three windows across the front, with a blank area to the right. A four-panelled door, with flush lower panels and a three-paned fanlight, is set within a flat moulded wooden hood supported on shaped brackets, replacing a ground-floor window on the right-hand side. A later 20th-century glazed wooden door replaces the left-hand ground-storey window. The other windows are flush framed sash windows; the ground floor has an 8-paned window, the second floor a 2-paned window. A pair of wooden two-light casement windows are located to the right of the third storey, each light originally having eight panes, although the left light of the left-hand window is missing. Other windows have mid- to late-20th century metal frames. A small wooden eaves cornice runs along the top. A dormer window is visible on the left.

The rear wall, visible from a public courtyard, features two segmental-headed windows on the right (north) side of the ground floor containing original mullioned-and-transomed window frames. The left-hand window has two lights with leaded glass. A blocked window is located above it on the second floor and may contain a similar frame under cement. A blocked two-light window with a wooden frame is at the left end of the third storey.

The right-hand (south) side wall has a three-light sash window on the ground floor, with six panes in the middle sashes. A two-light wooden casement window is in the garret, with six panes per light.

The interior has not been inspected.

The house is historically important as one of the earliest back-court buildings remaining in Tiverton, where this type of development was once common. The original barred sashes and the rare surviving mullioned-and-transomed windows on the rear wall contribute significantly to its architectural character.