Beaufort House

Beaufort House

Early 19th-century offices, formerly dwellings built for the Gloucester Spa Company, with late 20th-century alterations.

The building is constructed of rendered brick with hipped slate roofs. It forms the western end of Beaufort Buildings, a terraced row facing Spa Road. The western end fronts Brunswick Road and rises to three storeys plus basement. Its return end attaches to a two-storey plus basement wing, and furthest east is the three-storey plus basement block that was formerly 1 Beaufort Buildings. To the rear (north) of the former 1 Beaufort Buildings are a single-storey brick addition and a three-storey plus basement block.

The 19th-century buildings represent two phases of construction across a corner site. Both fronts are designed in a stripped-back Regency style with timber sashes and projecting stone sills set in stuccoed elevations. The Brunswick Road façade has three unequally spaced bays; the Spa Road elevation has seven bays arranged as 1:3:3. Both the Brunswick Road block and its rear wing facing Spa Road have an offset plinth with scribed masonry joints, a raised band at first-floor level, and crowning entablatures with frieze bands and coped parapets.

The Brunswick Road front features a single-storey entrance portico, offset to the left of centre, executed in the Roman Doric order with a pair of columns at each outer corner supporting an entablature with a blocking course. Within the portico is a recessed entrance doorway with a fanlight. To each side of the portico is a six-over-six sash with moulded architraves. The first and second floors each have three sashes: the first floor has six-over-six sashes with moulded architraves, and the second floor has three-over-six sashes. The return ends on each floor contain a sash with openings matching those on the front. The semi-basement sashes have wrought-iron window guards. The wing to Spa Road displays three six-over-six sashes in plain openings to each floor.

The former 1 Beaufort Buildings to the right has a symmetrical three-bay front with a raised band at first-floor level and a crowning cornice. The ground floor entrance is a central porch in the Ionic order with pairs of columns at the outer corners supporting an entablature with a pulvinated frieze, modillion cornice, and blocking course. The doorway, reached by a flight of stone steps through the porch, is framed with side-lights and a segmental arch enclosing a decorative metal fanlight, with a fielded six-panel door. On either side of the portico and to the first floor left and right are tripartite sashes with four-pane margin glazing. The second floor has three shorter sashes.

The rear (north) elevation comprises three elements. To the left is a single-storey brick range with a canted bay, featuring a central door with stone architrave and a plain door case with sidelights and fanlight. Behind it is the rear stuccoed elevation of the former 1 Beaufort Buildings with sashes to the first and second floors. To the right is a rendered three-storey plus basement block with horned six-over-six sashes arranged as 3:2 to each floor. The basement has a lateral external stair covered in a corrugated metal shelter.

The interiors of the early 19th-century buildings were refitted as offices in 1987, with some reordering of layout. They retain joinery in principal rooms and corridors, including moulded window and door architraves and rebated window shutters (some no longer functioning or partly replaced). There are also 19th-century plaster cornices in some rooms and areas.

The vestibule from Brunswick Road has a tiled floor and moulded console brackets forming an arch to the entrance hall. To the left are late 20th-century stairs serving all floors. Most of the ground floor is a canteen retaining some early 19th-century decorative features and fittings such as shutters, ceiling cornices, and a rose. The vestibule from Spa Road has a decorative plaster cornice and a depressed panelled arch to the entrance hall, which contains an early 19th-century stair with a wreathed handrail and stick balusters. The first floor displays a wrought-iron decorative floriated balustrade and retains some 19th-century joinery and plaster cornices. Most doors throughout the building are late 20th-century fire doors.