27-49, BONDGATE

A terrace of 12 estate workers' cottages built in 1853–55, probably designed by Sir Charles Barry for the Duncombe Park Estate. The cottages, known as the Twelve Apostles, are built in Vernacular Revival style.

The building is constructed from local squared, rock-faced stone laid to diminishing courses, with ashlar chimneys and dressings. The roof is Welsh slate with leaded ridges.

The terrace is arranged as six mirrored pairs of cottages with paired entrances. Each pair shares outer ridge stacks and shallow, two-storey outshots to the rear. The principal roof ridge runs the full length of the terrace, with a series of gabled roofs at right angles on both sides. Each cottage has its own central gable to the front and a half share of a gabled roof to the rear covering the shared rear outshots.

The original internal plan appears to have been 2 up 2 down, with front and rear rooms separated by cross stairs running parallel to the line of the terrace. Front doors open directly into the front room, possibly with a small internal timber wind lobby as seen at 41 Bondgate. However, at least one cottage (39 Bondgate) has been substantially reordered internally.

The terrace is one and a half storeys high. Each cottage has a single mullion and transom cross window to the first floor, centrally placed in a deep gable. Set to the outer side of each cottage on the ground floor is a larger window with two mullions and a transom. The windows have monolithic stone lintels carefully dressed to imitate wedge lintels with voussoirs. Original windows have timber mullions and transoms, with transoms positioned two-thirds of the way up. The lower lights are subdivided by a single horizontal glazing bar and the upper lights subdivided into four with a vertical and a horizontal bar. Some cottages have timber replacement joinery in the original style. At inspection, numbers 33, 37, 39, and 49 had replacement PVC units, though the window openings remain unaltered.

Each pair of front doors is topped by an original dentilated hoodmould. All front doors are likely later replacements, many probably dating to the late 19th or early 20th century with four-panel design and upper glazing. The ridge stacks are of stone ashlar with tall, paired octagonal shafts and moulded caps. Each rear outshot originally had a similar end stack, of which three survive. The rear elevation has minimal architectural detailing. Most cottages have undergone alterations to the rear with small extensions and replacement windows, none of special interest.

Of the interiors inspected, 39 Bondgate has been extensively altered with ground floor rooms knocked together, the staircase repositioned, and fixtures replaced. 41 Bondgate appears relatively unaltered, retaining front and rear downstairs rooms with a dog leg stair between. The front room has a small internal lobby for the front door, possibly a later addition. Original plank doors survive, though the principal fireplace is a 20th-century replacement. Original internal features surviving within any of the cottages contribute to the terrace's special interest.

The cottages were built for the Duncombe Park Estate between 1853 and 1855. They are clearly architect-designed and are thought likely to be by the practice of Sir Charles Barry, possibly by Barry himself, who is known to have undertaken other work for the estate including the Italianate wings added to the main house at Duncombe Park. The terrace shows strong similarities with 34–36 Castlegate next to the approach road to Duncombe Park, a pair of cottages of similar date also thought to have been designed by Barry.