Northcote Buildings

Northcote Buildings, Church Street, Ilfracombe

A terrace of four houses and shops numbered 7–10, built in 1880 to designs by William Robbins, architect of Ilfracombe. The buildings are constructed in High Victorian style and take their name from Sir Stafford Northcote, Conservative Member of Parliament for North Devon, who was re-elected unopposed on 5 April 1880, the year of their completion. The original terrace comprised six buildings (Nos 6–11), but Nos 6 and 11 have since been much altered and are not listed.

The buildings are faced in red brick with decorative dressings of yellow, black and white brick, supplemented by stone and terracotta details. Roofs are slated, although No.7 has asbestos covering and Nos 8–10 are tarred; crested ridge tiles run across the roofs, with some missing from No.9. Red brick chimneys rise from the left side walls, rebuilt at No.8, and all have sets of good chimney pots—louvred at No.7, spiked at Nos 8–10.

The buildings are two storeys tall with garrets. Each has a uniform Gothic-style front of three windows. The ground storeys originally contained shops, though the shopfronts have been much altered except at Nos 7 and 8. The shop at No.7 is divided into three bays by thick brick piers with chamfered corners, now painted. The middle bay contains a wide two-pane display window with thick moulded glazing bars forming four-centred arches at the top, the spandrels filled with small square panes. Below the window runs a decorated terracotta panel, now painted, incorporating the date 1880. The left-hand bay contains glazed double doors with solid panels at the bottom, while the right-hand bay has a six-panelled house door with shaped panels, the bottom two featuring diagonal planking. An entablature with moulded cornice runs across the whole front. No.8 retains its original red brick piers with white brick panels, along with a display window and shop door matching those at No.7.

The upper storeys feature a Venetian window in the centre, with a pointed middle light and outer lights with flat stone lintels shaped on the underside. The entire window is topped by a large pointed relieving arch of black or red brick, though it remains unclear whether the black is original paint or later addition. Flanking the window are two doorways with segmental arches; those at Nos 7–9 retain their original decorated iron guard rails. Above each doorway is a small window with a segmental arch. The wall surface is decorated with bands of yellow and white brick, along with terracotta and shaped white brick panels. A bracketed eaves cornice runs across the front, broken in the centre by a triangular dormer gable with carved bargeboards and terracotta finials (except at No.10). Nos 7 and 10 retain plain sash windows in the second storey and three-light mullioned and transomed wood windows in their dormer gables, with small windows having plain wooden casements. Both houses have original glazed doors in the second storey, each with a solid lower panel. At Nos 8 and 9, all but the two small windows have been replaced in the late 20th century, though an original door with two lower panels survives to the right of the second storey at No.8. A stone plaque to the right of the Venetian window at No.10 is inscribed NORTHCOTE BUILDINGS 1880. The interiors have not been inspected.