Trident House (Number 27A) And Attached Railings To Numbers 15 To 21 And 27

Terrace of 9 houses on St George's Road, Cheltenham, built circa 1837–40. The architect was probably Robert Morris. This is a Grade II* listed building of significant architectural importance.

The terrace is constructed of stucco over brick with a slate roof and brick and stucco party-wall stacks. It features wrought-iron balconies and railings throughout. The plan is double-depth with side hallways and three-storey service wings to the rear.

The exterior displays three storeys with a basement. Each house has three first-floor windows, giving 27 windows in total across the terrace. The end houses project slightly forwards and have distinctive round-arched windows on the ground floor and square-headed windows on the first floor; the remaining houses have this arrangement reversed, with round-arched windows to the first floor featuring archivolts and impost mouldings.

The stucco detailing is elaborate. The ground floor has horizontal rustication. Three-quarter engaged Corinthian columns separate each window, with pilasters applied to the end houses. These are surmounted by a projecting dentil entablature. An attic storey features a crowning frieze and cornice with a low parapet.

Ground and first-floor windows are six-over-six sashes where original, some with radial glazing to the heads. Second-floor windows are three-over-six sashes, all in plain reveals with sills. Several windows at Nos 19, 21, 23 and 27 have blind boxes.

Entrances occur at the right sides and to the returns, accessed by flights of roll-edged steps up to panelled doors with sidelights and overlights, some featuring ornate radial glazing bars. The return elevations are identical to each other, each with three first-floor windows. Central entrances have flights of roll-edged steps leading to four-panel, part-glazed doors and double doors with decorative overlights, set within surrounds with channelled pilasters and friezes featuring triglyphs and metopes. The right-hand entrance is framed with Doric columns in antis. To the first and second floors, the pilasters continue with sunk panels, interrupted by continuous cornices over the ground, first and second storeys. The centre bays contain six-over-six and three-over-six sashes; other openings are blind. Ground and first-floor windows are set in tooled architraves. Round-arched blind openings occur on the ground floor.

The rear elevation retains many original sashes of six-over-six, eight-over-eight and three-over-three configuration.

Interior features include original joinery and plasterwork, notably dogleg staircases with wreathed handrails and embellished rods.

Ground-floor balconies are individual to each house. First-floor balconies are continuous across the terrace. Railings are primarily of arrowhead-pattern area type. Stick balusters flank the steps with wreathed handrails. No. 27 has two individual rear balconies with interlaced circles and embellished rods.

The land for this development was sold in 1837 for £50,000 to the Bayshill Estate Company, a joint stock company formed following the death of Reverend Richard Skillicorne in 1834. The Bayshill Estate encompassed Bayshill Road and Parabola Road. The terrace bears similarity to a design executed in 1825 for Robert Morris by J.B. Papworth, though it differs in the omission of one storey and in having half-round arches over the first-floor windows rather than the full round-arched treatment here. The careful detailing of the terrace ends is noted as unusual for Cheltenham terraces of this period. Trident House was formerly known as Fauconberg Lodge.