Southend House

Southend House is a villa, dating from circa 1840 to 1850. It has been converted into flats and is located on Prestbury Road, Cheltenham. The exterior is stucco over brick, with a hipped slate roof, stucco ridge, and rear stacks. The main facade is two storeys high, with a basement, featuring three full-height windows on the left side, extended around the corner as a five-sided bay. Stucco detailing includes pediments on console brackets to the ground-floor windows and a bowed porch with two ‘Tower of Winds’ columns, Doric pilaster responds, and a dentil entablature. A tooled band runs along the facade, interrupted by window sills below the first-floor windows. The overhanging eaves contribute to the villa’s appearance. The windows are 6/6 sash windows throughout, taller on the ground floor and set in plain reveals with sills. The basement windows are modern 1/1 sashes. The rear elevation, facing Albert Road, has a single-storey bow to the ground floor, topped by openwork balustrades, and a tripartite window featuring a 6/6 sash between two 2/2 sashes. Other rear windows are 6/6 sashes; the angle bay echoes the front with pediments on console brackets. The right return displays a 4/4 staircase sash window with radial glazing to the head and margin-lights.

The interior retains original joinery, including window shutters. The property’s construction was originally agreed by Abraham Tyler in 1840, who then transferred the lot to Charles Cary, and it subsequently became mortgaged. Built as part of a wider development initiated by Joseph Pitt between 1835 and 1842, the layout was designed by architect John Forbes. John Gregory Welch, who previously built Arle House (demolished circa 1960), lived at Southend House in 1846. It forms a group with numbers 32 to 66 (even) on Prestbury Road.