Oxford Parade And Attached Railings

The terrace of six houses, now houses and flats, at 38-48 Oxford Parade, Cheltenham, was built between 1816 and 1817. Constructed from limestone ashlar over brick, the building has original brick and stucco party-wall stacks and iron balconies, canopied hoods, porches, and railings featuring lead embellishments. It is designed symmetrically with a double-depth plan and service ranges to the rear.

The three-storey terrace has a basement level and a rear attic storey to the central four houses, featuring 18 first-floor windows in total (three per house). Central houses project slightly. Ashlar detailing includes first- and second-floor bands, a frieze, and a cornice. Original 6/6 sashes remain where present on the first floor (taller windows), while the second floor has 3/3 sashes. Basement windows are also 3/3 sashes, all in plain reveals with sills. The entrance to No. 38 is on the left return, with a part-glazed 5- and 6-panel door, a lozenge frieze, and fanlight incorporating batwing and circle glazing bars. The left return also has five first-floor windows. A central entrance is above this with a 6/6 sash followed by a 3/3 sash, and other blind openings. The rear elevation retains several original 6/6 and 3/3 sashes. A service wing to the rear of No. 44 is open to the ground floor and supported by a column cluster.

Interiors retain original joinery, including panelled shutters to some windows and original plasterwork, notably embellished cornices. No. 44 has moulded cornices throughout the ground and first floors with floral ceiling friezes, mainly 6-panel doors in tooled architraves with floral corner details, double dividing doors between ground-floor rooms with fluted architraves and floral corners, some marble fireplaces, and a dogleg staircase with alternate stick and rod-and-bobbin balusters and a wreathed handrail. The hall features an archway on corbels. No. 48 has a dogleg staircase with stick balusters and wreathed handrail and embellished cornices.

Subsidiary features include area spearhead railings. Porches have an open-lozenge motif to uprights and scrolled friezes with tent hoods. First-floor balconies have a rod and star motif with a central scrolled panel and lattice friezes; canopied hoods are present except for No. 48 which has a lattice frieze instead.

Historical records show that No. 44 was purchased in 1822 by Miss Polly Bull, and the terrace forms a notable early example, set back behind an open garden on a main approach road to Cheltenham, and is noted for having “one of the finest examples of wrought ironwork in Cheltenham”.