Cleeve House And Homewood With Attached Railings

Cleeve House and Homewood are two villas, originally one larger house, built around 1851-1852. They are now divided into separate dwellings and include attached railings. The construction is stucco over brick, with a hipped slate roof, brick stacks finished with cornices, and an iron balcony and railings.

The main range is two storeys plus a basement with attic space, and has three windows on the front, with a fourth window added to the right. Architectural details include quoins to the main range and decorative architraves to the windows; those on the first floor have a projecting pediment with a moulded foot, while the ground floor windows are framed by a frieze and cornice resting on corbel brackets. A continuous moulded sill band runs along the first floor, with another moulded band above. The first-floor windows are 1/1 sashes, the ground floor windows are 2/2 sashes, with a tripartite window on the left side. Blind boxes disguise the window mechanics on the ground floor. Basement windows are 4/4 and 3/3 sashes, with 1/1 sashes. The attic has skylights.

Central and left entrances are reached by flights of steps with roll-edged edges leading to round-arched openings with moulded heads on impost blocks. These contain four-panel doors topped with fanlights. The interior retains original joinery, including panelled shutters.

The railings to the sides of the steps have decorative rods, and the ground-floor balustrade sits on plinths with alternating embellished oval and rod designs.

Cleeve House and Homewood were part of the Pittville development, which was completed after Joseph Pitt’s death in 1842. Originally planned as Beaufort Place and laid out as West Spa Approach around 1844, it was not part of John Forbes's original estate plan and were initially known as Nos 1-4 Beaufort Villas. The property forms a group with similar villas on West Approach Drive, including Mount Sorrell, Beaufort, and Park Gate.