Numbers 1 To 9 With Attached Railings And Gates

Terrace of five houses, some now converted to flats, with attached railings and gates, located on the north side of Berkeley Place in Cheltenham. The terrace is numbered 1 to 9 (odd numbers only) from right to left, though described from left to right.

The terrace dates to circa 1810-20, appearing on the 1820 Post Office map but not on Mitchell's Map of 1810. The buildings have undergone later additions and alterations, including extensions to service wings at the rear.

The structure is constructed in brick with an ashlar facade and slate double-pitch roof with stucco party-wall stacks. It incorporates wrought- and iron verandahs, window guards, railings and gates. The plan follows a double-depth arrangement with a full-height service range to the rear.

The exterior comprises four storeys with a basement. The first-floor window range extends across 15 windows (three per house). The end houses break forward slightly. The ground floor features rusticated stonework drawn into voussoirs over entrances and windows, with the centre house displaying vermiculated rustication. Horizontal floor bands, frieze, cornice and blocking course run across the facade.

First-floor windows are tall 6/6 sashes where original; elsewhere they are 6-pane French windows with divided overlights, those to No. 1 featuring margin-lights. Some openings contain 1/1 sashes within their original frames. Second and third floors have 6/6 and 3/3 sashes respectively, all with sills. Ground-floor windows are 2/2 and 1/1 sashes. The basement is fitted mainly with 8/8 sashes. All windows sit in plain reveals.

Entrances appear to the right of the main frontage, with 4- and 6-panel doors fitted with fanlights. Where original, the fanlights display batwing-and-circle motif glazing bars (notably at Nos 1 and 3). The entrance to No. 9, positioned on the left return, is distinctive: a solid porch with paired Ionic columns frames a 6-fielded-panel door between pilaster strips, surmounted by a frieze and overlight with decorative glazing bars, a pulvinated frieze, modillion cornice and blocking course. The inscription 'BERKELEY PLACE' is cut into the second-floor band at the right.

The left return of the main range contains four first-floor windows, most of which are blind openings with sills; two twentieth-century windows break this pattern. The right return is plain. The rear elevation retains mainly 6/6 sashes where original.

The first-floor verandah to each house features a rod-and-concentric-circle motif to the balustrade and a scroll motif to the uprights, with openwork frieze and tent roofs. The centre house has individual window guards to its third-floor windows. Some ground-floor windows include window boxes. Spearhead railings flank the entrances and extend to the basement areas with gates; stanchions are topped with urn finials. The entrance porch to No. 9 is surmounted by a balustrade with a concentric-circle motif.

The interior was not inspected at the time of listing.

Historically, the Berkeley family were prominent Cheltenham landowners and provided the Liberal MP for the town for 60 years during the nineteenth century. Originally, the houses had formal gardens in front; these now form a public space. The terrace is set well back from London Road, one of the main routes into Cheltenham, and forms an architectural unit with Nos 11 and 15-21 (odd), also on Berkeley Place.