St Gabriels Court

St Gabriel’s Court is a pair of semi-detached houses built in 1896, believed to be designed by George Dale Oliver for himself and Francis Robertson, with a later extension in 1899 designed by Charles J. Ferguson. The houses are constructed of smooth red brick with ashlar sandstone dressings, half-timbered detailing to the gable apexes, slate roof coverings, and reduced side wall and ridge chimneys.

The original front elevation is near-symmetrical, featuring two storeys with attics. A late 20th-century gabled porch encloses the central doorway. Wide, advanced outer gables each feature paired sash windows to each floor, with ashlar lintels and cills. Chamfered corners are present, and the right-hand house has a two-light mullioned window in the angle. Inner bays incorporate two-storey canted bay windows, with the left-hand bay built against the inner return of the gable. Dormers with half-timbered detailing are above these. The right-hand return has narrow sash windows and a projecting, now truncated, chimney breast. A doorway with a three-panel reeded door, within an ashlar surround and shallow arched head, is located to the right of the right-hand house, flanked by a lancet with blind cusping and a pair of coupled ground-floor sashes. A lower, two-storey, L-shaped extension to the left-hand house obscures much of its return elevation. A set-back gable to the front has quoins and a coped gable, incorporating a wide, off-centre doorway with a moulded stone surround and semi-circular arched head with a hood mould and flanking rectangular lights. A six-panel door with integral fanlight is within, above which a shallow moulded storey band is set below a four-light transomed window. The side elevation is asymmetrical, featuring a wide canted bay window with transomed lights and two- and three-light first-floor mullioned windows beneath a drip mould. A narrow quoined doorway with a part-glazed panelled door is located at the junction of a storeyed range and a single-storey, flat-roofed part with a further canted bay window and balustraded parapet.

Interior modifications have resulted from the division of the houses into flats, but much original fabric remains, including joinery and plasterwork. The added wing has undergone little alteration and retains interior detailing from the original drawings, such as wall panelling, panelled doors and surrounds, moulded ceiling beams, leaded lights, stained glass, and decorative tilework.

The houses are attributed to George Dale Oliver, who lived in the right-hand house and later became County Architect for Cumberland. Charles J. Ferguson, a pupil of Scott who later worked with J.A.Cory, designed the extension to the left-hand house.