Numbers 47 To 83 And Attached Railings With Low Walls And End Piers To Numbers 71 And 73

A terrace of 19 houses at numbers 47 to 83 (odd numbers only) on the Promenade in Cheltenham, now serving as Municipal Buildings. The terrace includes attached railings, low walls, and end piers to numbers 71 and 73.

The terrace was begun in 1823 with building continuing to around 1840. The central portion was shown as incomplete on Merrett's map of 1834. It is possibly by George Underwood for the Imperial Estate and was built by the Harward Brothers, with ironwork by R E Marshall. The buildings have stucco over brick with slate roofs where original, wrought and cast-iron railings and balconies.

The exterior comprises 4 storeys with basements and 3 first-floor windows to each house. The stucco detailing includes rustication to the ground floor surmounted by a first-floor band. Ionic columns form a first-floor arcade at recessed ranges, and there is a second-floor sill band above. Continuous architraves run over the second and third floors. Breakforwards project at the end 6-window ranges and the central 15-window range. The central breakforward has a further 3-window central and end breakforwards. The centre breakforward is topped by a pediment over the second floor resting on 4 fluted Ionic columns with 6 similar pilasters on each side. The end breakforwards have Doric pilasters to the end windows through the first and second floors, with a band of Greek key fretwork between the first and second floors. The windows are 6/6 sashes where original, with 3/3 sashes to the third floor, all in plain reveals with sills. Original entrances have steps leading to 6-panel doors with upper panels raised and fielded and lower panels with fluted surrounds. Many 6/6 sashes remain to the rear elevations and several round-arched staircase windows have 8/8 and 6/6 sashes with radial glazing to the heads; there is also a 4/4 sash with radial glazing bars to the head and margin-lights.

Some original interior features survive, including plasterwork to number 77. The narrow open-well staircases have stick balusters and wreathed handrails where original.

The subsidiary features include entrances to the centre bordered by low walls and end panelled piers with cornices surmounted by lamps. The railings and probably balconies are by R E and C Marshall. Urn finials are stamped 'Marshall' and the balconies have a central floral motif within a circle.

The property was originally part of the Imperial Estate and Harwards's Buildings. The central 7 houses were converted into Municipal Offices in 1916. The Promenade was laid out in 1818 as a tree-lined drive to the Sherborne Spa (on the site of the Queen's Hotel) from the Colonnade in the High Street. By 1826 it was a carriage drive with spacious gravelled walks on each side and was originally known as Sherbourne Drive. The buildings on the north-west side were the first to be developed. Although rows of elegant houses originally occupied either side, by 1845 when Rowe wrote his Cheltenham Guide (published in 1850), nearly the whole of the left-hand south-east side was devoted to professional or business establishments. Verey describes this terrace as equal to any terrace in Europe. It represents an excellent overall design and is, outwardly, the most impressive manifestation in Cheltenham of the style adopted in Nash's grand Regent's Park terraces, comparing well with other examples nationally. Later additions and alterations include some 19th and 20th-century ranges to the rear.