21-25, THE STRAND

A terrace of five houses stands on The Strand in Bideford. The buildings date to the early 19th century, although number 23 was likely rebuilt around the middle of the 19th century as a central feature. The front of the terrace is rendered and has a slate roof with three rendered chimneys. The houses are three storeys high with a semi-basement level.

Numbers 21-22 and 24-25 are each two windows wide, with a single window centrally positioned on the ground floor and doorways at either end of the paired houses. Number 23 projects outwards with a three-sided design, featuring a window on each face and a doorway on the left side. On numbers 21-22 and 24-25, the upper storeys are flanked and separated by giant Doric pilasters (the capitals are missing from numbers 21-22) which stand on a moulded sill band at the second storey and support an entablature with a blocking course. The centre of this entablature rises to form a low pedestal above each pair of houses. The ground floor is divided by pilaster strips. Ground-floor doors and windows have cornices supported by consoles, while the second-floor windows have eared architraves with entablatures above. The doors are four-panelled. Windows on the ground and second floors have six panes, while those on the third floor are two-paned.

Number 23 has a horizontally-channelled, vermiculated ground floor. The three openings have bands of a key pattern above, including a four-panelled door, a three-light window with plain sashes, and a blind window to the right. The doorway is approached by a flight of steps with a patterned balustrade on the left. The second-storey windows have panelled pilasters and pediments on consoles, featuring a segmental pediment in the centre and triangular ones on either side, and have two-paned sashes with margin panes. A continuous balustraded balcony runs in front of these windows, supported by paired consoles. The third-storey windows feature moulded architraves and bracketed sills with two-paned sashes. A bracketed top cornice is topped with a tall patterned balustrade. The interior has not been inspected.