Beaconsfield Terrace

Beaconsfield Terrace is a terrace of working-class houses dating from 1880, located on the west side of Wilder Road in Ilfracombe. The architect was possibly W. M. Robbins of Ilfracombe.

The terrace comprises fourteen houses (Nos. 19–45 odd) built in stone rubble with cream-coloured brick dressings. The roofs are slated with crested red ridge tiles, hipped at the right-hand end. Many slates have been tarred or replaced with asbestos, with the exception of No. 25; plain ridge tiles have replaced the original crested ones at Nos. 31, 35–41 and 45. The dormer gables at Nos. 19, 21, 25–29 and 35 feature pierced red ridge tiles. Red brick chimneys with bands of cream-coloured brick stand on the party walls. Those at Nos. 23 and 41 have been rendered, whilst those at Nos. 29–33 and 37 have been rebuilt.

Each house is two storeys tall and two windows wide, with the door positioned to the left of the ground storey. The right-hand ground-floor window is two lights wide with a central brick pier. No. 45, the corner house, is distinctive: its door is positioned on the splayed angle and a three-light window faces Wilder Road. Doorways and windows have segmental brick arches with moulded jambs, except at Nos. 39 and 45 where the doorways are plain; the lintel at No. 45 appears to have been rebuilt in concrete. Bracketed eaves feature brackets of moulded yellow brick.

The upper storey of each house has a wide right-hand window that rises above eaves level and terminates in a large gable filled with decorative brickwork, some of it glazed, framed by lightly carved bargeboards. A stone plaque on the gable at No. 27 is inscribed "Beaconsfield Terrace 1880". The original four-panelled doors have moulded jambs and segmental arches; lower panels are flush. Nos. 21 and 43 retain good knockers and letterboxes in brass and iron respectively. Two-paned fanlights are standard. At No. 37, the upper panels of the doors have been glazed; at No. 45, the door has two moulded panels below and a single glazed panel above. Original doors have been entirely replaced at Nos. 19, 29, 31, 33 and 39, with No. 29 receiving a high-quality six-panelled replacement. Nos. 19, 31, 33, 39 and 45 now have plain fanlights.

Windows are two-paned sashes with a single horizontal glazing bar, except for the right-hand upper storey windows, which are two-light mullioned and transomed wood casements with lower lights containing two panes matching those in the sashes. A blind upper storey window exists in the splayed angle at No. 45. Glazing bars have been removed from windows at No. 23, from the upper storey windows at No. 29, and from the left-hand upper storey window at No. 41. At No. 35, all windows have twentieth-century metal frames. At No. 37, a plain shop window has replaced the original ground-floor window. Door and window surrounds have been painted at No. 19 and the door surround at No. 35; at No. 37, ground-storey door and window surrounds have been painted.

The return front of No. 45, visible from the lane leading into Church Road, features a doorway and two windows similar to those on the main front, although the door has been replaced. To the left is a nineteenth-century six-paned shop window with frieze and moulded cornice. To the right is a plain dormer gable with a two-light wood casement, each light containing three panes. Rear elevations are mostly rendered and feature short projecting rear wings to each house.

The interiors have not been inspected. These may have been the "cottages" for which Mr. Frederick Durke submitted plans to Ilfracombe Local Board of Health in 1880, with W. M. Robbins as architect. At the time of the April 1881 census, only some houses had occupants, including a plumber, painter, mason, general labourer, railway clerk and railway porter.