63 Claredon Street

63 Clarendon Street is a Victorian mid-terraced three-bay, three-storey house over basement, built around 1874. The building is rendered with stucco detailing and is rectangular on plan with a projecting return to the rear featuring a lean-to roof and rear dormer to the main pitched slated roof. It was built as part of a terrace row later than the adjacent properties to the east and differs from the form of the majority of houses on Clarendon Street, which are dominated by two-bay brick houses. No. 63 is similar in expression to No. 65 Clarendon Street and was built at the same time.

The principal elevation faces north and is set behind a low plinth wall with railings above. The entrance comprises a round-arched opening to a slightly recessed doorway with moulded embellishment supported by a pair of pilasters painted in the same colour. The pilasters are topped with a projecting cornice detail supported on acanthus leaf detail, with a stucco grape bunch to the head of the arch formed in arched stucco architrave. The doors are paired half-leaf timber two-panelled with a plain fanlight above, and the entrance is three steps up from the pavement.

All windows to the principal facade are 1/1 timber sliding sash with horns. A two-storey canted bay with square-headed openings rises from basement to first floor. The first floor window directly above the entrance door has a square-headed opening with cornice hood. The second floor comprises three round-arched windows, with a single window above the main entrance door and a pair of windows above the two-storey bay. A single square-headed casement window has replaced the original window within the front face of the canted bay; the window openings to the splayed walls on both sides are infilled, rendered and painted.

Additional stucco embellishments include moulded architraves around the single square-headed window to the first floor, which also has a projecting hood mould cornice supported on decorative console brackets. A projecting cornice spanning the width of the elevation divides the ground floor from the first, with a similar detail to the top of the canted bay. The round-headed arched windows to the second floor are embellished in a similar way to the first floor windows below and consist of a projecting string course at cill level. Stucco quoins to the north-east end of the elevation mirror the detailing to adjacent building No. 65. The pitched natural slate roof has black clay ridge tiles and a large red-brick chimney stack rising from the east side, centred on the ridge with six clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and a painted circular downpipe are located to the front. Projecting eaves are supported on corbel brackets.

The south elevation is three-storey rendered (unpainted) with a lean-to return to the left with slated roof (Bangor Blues). A small flat-roofed dormer window to the rear of the main pitched slated roof contains a fire exit door that opens onto an external steel escape stair within the yard. The fenestration pattern is irregular with glazed fire screens inserted in place of former windows and a few sliding sash windows remaining to the main building at half-landing level. The lean-to is abutted by a later two-storey (over basement) pitched roof return with artificial roof slates, black clay ridge tiles and wet-dash render to walls; openings are generally timber casements, informally arranged. A further external steel fire stair from the southern-most end of the later return descends from ground floor to basement level within the yard.

The east side is adjoined to No. 61 Clarendon Street, which is lower in height to reflect the steep slope of the street. Above the abutment with the roof to the lower house, there are two square-headed casement windows at attic level within the gable. The exposed wall is smooth rendered (unpainted) on either side of a red-brick chimney stack that is centred on the apex.

Materials include a natural slate roof, cast-iron rainwater goods to the north and uPVC to the south, smooth painted render to the north elevation and smooth unpainted render with wet-dash to the later return on the south. Windows comprise timber sliding sash to the north and timber casement to the south.

The property is built as part of a pair of two Victorian townhouses. Nos. 63 and 65 are set in a terrace of ten which lines the south side of Clarendon Street between Princes Street and Francis Street, and is located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area. The front of the property is set behind a low rendered wall enclosing the basement level.