Avonside

No.63 Avonside is a large house in a row, dating from the mid-18th century. It is a substantial, double-depth plan Georgian house built of Flemish bond brickwork, with a tile roof and brick stacks. The house is three storeys high, with a basement, and has a five-window front. The second floor has nine-pane sashes, while the first and ground floors have twelve-pane sashes, all set within brick voussoirs and decorative keystones with cornices, and stone cills. A wide, central panelled door is set within fluted Doric quarter-columns, topped by a frieze and decorated fanlight. The plinth incorporates air bricks for the basement and rises to the level of the ground-floor window cills. A plain band runs above the ground-floor keystones, and there is a moulded parapet coping. The return wall on the right has a large external brick stack near the back. The rear elevation, possibly added slightly later, is four-windowed, with four-pane sashes on the second floor and two plate glass windows with two 12-pane sashes at ground and first floor levels, also set within brick voussoirs without keystones. To the left on the first floor is an early 19th century two-bay balcony resting on six cast-iron brackets, with a decorative wrought-iron balustrade. The central panelled door incorporates a plain fanlight, similar to the one in the adjacent No.62.

Inside, the entrance lobby has a Minton tile floor and a wide elliptical archway leading to the stair hall, featuring fielded panelling. To the right of the entrance is a room lined with large fielded pine panels, a dado rail, and a fireplace with a reeded surround. The windows have inner shutters or panelling with unusually shallow reveals for the period. Fine moulded architraves surround the panelled doors throughout the house. The grand, open-well staircase rises through both storeys to a modern dome-light, replacing the original 18th century one. The staircase itself has an open string with scrolled ends to the treads, newels with drops, turned balusters, and a swept and wreathed mahogany handrail. A back room on the first floor features two transverse beams, a reeded cornice, beam mouldings, and an 19th century fireplace. The house is among the grandest of those rebuilt on the High Street, retaining most of its original external features and substantial, unchanged interiors.