Dollar Street House And Attached Steps, Railing Bases And Ironwork

Dollar Street House and Attached Steps, Railing Bases and Ironwork, Cirencester

This building comprises offices, formerly a house, on the east side of Dollar Street. It was built in 1725 by the lawyer Joseph Pitt, who later developed Pittville Spa in Cheltenham, and was substantially enlarged in the early 19th century.

The structure is constructed of limestone ashlar to the front with coursed squared limestone to the rear. It is roofed with Welsh slate hipped parapeted roofs, with ashlar end stack to the right and ashlar ridge stacks to the front and rear of the left range.

The 1725 house to the right occupies more than half the building's width. This section is 3 storeys tall with an attic and cellar, arranged as a 5-window range. The first floor features five late 18th-century 6/6-pane sashes with fanlight tops, set in moulded stone architraves with basket-arched heads, impost blocks, keystones and moulded stone cills. The second floor contains five similar 4/4-pane sashes in comparable architraves. The ground floor has four similar 6/6-pane sashes to the left, and to the right a door with 6 moulded panels, the upper 2 glazed, with a similar architrave flanked by two 2/2-pane sash windows with moulded cills within a similar architrave featuring impost blocks, keystone and elliptical-arched head. The entrance is approached via stone steps and a plat over the basement area with a balustrade formed of late 18th-century and early 19th-century wrought-iron panels incorporating footscrapers. Stone steps to the left lead down to a 6-panel door to the basement under the front door. Two dormers feature lead-covered segmental heads with 2-light casements. The facade has a plinth with moulded top, plat bands on the keystones of ground and first floor windows, and a base moulding of the eaves cornice breaking forward over the keystones of second floor windows. A moulded lead hopper head, now with a plastic down-pipe, is dated 1725 with the initials CS.

The early 19th-century addition to the left more than doubled the original size. This section is 3 storeys with a cellar and comprises a 6-window range, with 4 central bays breaking forward slightly. The first floor has six 6/6-pane sashes in plain reveals with stone cills; the second floor has six similar 3/6-pane sashes. The ground floor contains four similar 6/6-pane sashes to the centre; to the right stands a pedimented Ionic porch on a plat approached by 4 stone steps, and to the left a 6-panel door in a moulded stone architrave approached by 4 stone steps with a simple wrought-iron handrail on each side. One opening to the cellar at the centre has stone steps leading to a 20th-century door. The facade has a plinth with moulded offset, moulded band courses over ground and first floors, a moulded stone eaves cornice, and a parapet with 7 dies. Limestone railing bases attached to the front support a simple wrought-iron overthrow at the centre.

The rear elevation to the left has 2-light chamfered stone mullion and transom windows to the second floor; lower windows show 19th-century alterations. The later range features 6/6-pane sashes in flat unmoulded stone surrounds.

The interior to the left contains early 19th-century enriched marble chimneypieces to the ground floor front right and rear left and right. A cantilevered stone well staircase with wrought-iron balustrade and mahogany grip handrail runs from ground to first floor, with a matching balustrade to the gallery over the staircase to the second floor. A stick baluster dog-leg back staircase also serves the upper floors. An enriched marble chimneypiece with Siena marble inlay is positioned to the first floor rear right, whilst simple marble chimneypieces are located to the first and second floor front left and right and rear left.

The interior to the right is now accessed via a door at the centre of the ground floor; former connections to the upper floors are currently disused. A small winder staircase serves this section. The first floor front left room has applied Adamesque decoration, probably from the late 19th century or early 20th century, consisting of plaster panels to the walls, a swagged frieze and dentil cornice, enriched timber dado rail and architraves, and a 20th-century fireplace. A cast-iron Adamesque chimneypiece to the first floor rear may have been refixed from the front room. Other rooms contain simple stone fireplaces, and the second floor rear left features chamfered beams with run-out stops.