33-39, Lonsdale Street

These are four mid to late Victorian town houses located on Lonsdale Street, Carlisle. While initially thought to have been built between the late 1860s and the early 1890s, census records suggest construction occurred between 1881 and 1891. Numbers 33, 35, and 37 are currently being converted from office use to residential use, with number 39 remaining offices and number 33 serving as the Women’s Institute offices and meeting room. The houses are built of red brick on a chamfered plinth, with calciferous sandstone dressings (some painted) and stone-bracketed metal gutters. They have Welsh slate roofs and a double-depth plan with outshots to the rear.

The front elevation features two storeys and two bays per house, with number 39 having a slightly lower roofline and three bays. Each has a panelled door with an overlight within a prostyle Tuscan porch, approached by steps. Ground-floor canted bay windows are present on each house, with number 39’s positioned on the right and number 33 having a full-height bay window modified at ground floor level. Upper-floor windows are sash windows, those of numbers 33-37 set within eared architraves with keystone features, and all have bracketed sills. A stone corbel table supports the metal rainwater gutters.

The rear elevation of number 33 rises to three storeys for the main part of the building, with two storeys for the outshot. Numbers 35 and 37 have gabled roof dormers. Mainly sash windows are present on the rear elevations of the main parts of the buildings, along with some modern replacements, particularly in number 33. Number 39 has a modern single-storey projection to the rear.

Internally, number 33 retains original doors and cornicing, wall cupboards, and an original staircase with a carved newel post. Numbers 35 and 37, currently undergoing conversion, retain some original doors, wall cupboards, fireplaces, a window shutter, and staircases. Number 39 retains some original cornicing, doors, wall cupboards, and the staircase. These properties were originally four separate town houses. Number 33 was purchased by the Cumberland Federation of the Women’s Institute in 1946 and converted for office and meeting room use, a function it retains today. Numbers 35 to 39 were converted into offices in 1965. In 2004, numbers 35 and 37 were purchased privately and are currently being converted to residential use.