Albion House Social Club

CHELTENHAM

SO9422NE NORTH PLACE 630-1/9/589 (West side) 12/03/55 Albion House Social Club (Formerly Listed as: NORTH STREET Liberal Club)

GV II

House, now club. c1805, for Theodore Gwinnett, a prosperous local attorney and Clerk to the Commissioners, probably with earlier, mid-C18 origins, and with later additions and alterations including late-C19 snooker room to rear; further late-C20 range to rear of no special architectural interest. Ashlar over brick with hipped slate roof. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 5 first-floor windows arranged 1:3:1, the centre breaks forward and is pedimented with ground-floor tetrastyle Ionic loggia with frieze and cornice. First-floor band. Crowning frieze, cornice and central pediment with fan motif. Outer windows in full-height elliptically-arched recesses. 6/6 sashes throughout, in plain reveals and with sills. Cental entrance within loggia a 6-panel door (upper panels raised and fielded, lower panels have fluted surrounds) with fanlight and radial glazing bars. Right return has full-height canted bay, the ground floor retains 6/6 sashes, that to centre is round-arched and has Gothic glazing to head. First floor has 2/2 sashes with central 'fanlight', otherwise blind openings. INTERIOR: retains many original features including central large hall with open-well staircase with barleytwist-on-vase balusters and carved tread ends and with ramped and wreathed handrail, end newel post. Panelled shutters to windows. First floor has plasterwork including at centre, egg-and-dart cornice and ceiling frieze. Roof retains purlins and rafters. HISTORICAL NOTE: Gwinnett subsequently built No.38 Evesham Road (qv). Little states that this is `one of the best designs, with its Ionic loggia-cum-porch and its subtly recessed windows, among Cheltenham's rich treasure of single Regency villas of the 1820s or before'. (The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 149; Little B: Cheltenham: London: 1952-: 63-64).

Listing NGR: SO9497822604