55 Claredon Street

55 Clarendon Street is a Victorian end-of-terrace three-storey townhouse built around 1872, constructed as part of a pair within a row of ten similarly scaled houses lining the south side of Clarendon Street. It sits at the junction with Princes Street and is located within the Clarendon Street Conservation Area.

The building is rectangular on plan with a rear return at half-landing level. The principal elevation faces north and is set back from the pavement by a low level painted rendered boundary wall with painted wrought-iron railings above, accessed via five concrete steps.

The north-facing principal elevation features painted render to the ground floor and Flemish brick bond above to the upper floors. Ground floor windows have round-arch stepped reveals, bull-nosed cills and moulded apron panels below. The entrance doorway also has a round-arch stepped reveal with a painted timber four-panelled door and plain fanlight above. A moulded shoulder-course runs between each window, with hood mould and flying keystone details. All windows are timber sliding sashes with 1/1 panes; those on the first floor are square-headed with a sill-course, while those on the second floor have segmental arches. Two modern rooflights are present on the roof.

The east elevation is asymmetrical and cement rendered. The gable end to Clarendon Street contains single square-headed 2/2 timber sliding sash windows to ground, first and second floors on the left side, and two small round-arched 1/1 timber sliding sash windows placed either side of a central red-brick chimney stack at attic level. A three-storey lower return, also rendered, abuts the gable end, with a boarded-up window and side entrance door to the ground floor, a pair of 2/2 timber sliding sash windows to the first floor, and a smaller pair of 2/2 timber sliding sash windows to the second floor. A rendered chimney stack with five clay pots runs along the ridge-line to the south end, adjoining No. 25 Princes Street.

The west side is abutted by No. 57 Clarendon Street. The south elevation is three storeys with cement render (unpainted) and features a rear return. A projecting gabled bay on the left side of the main building contains square-headed casement windows to the upper floors with clipped eaves. The lower return has irregular fenestration with a mix of 1/1 and 2/2 timber sliding sashes, some with security bars, uPVC guttering and downpipes. A flat-roofed dormer with horizontal timber cladding and timber casement windows projects above eaves height on the return.

The roof is pitched slate with black clay ridge tiles. A large red-brick chimney stack with eight clay pots, which has been rebuilt, rises from the east side at the ridge centre. Two skylights light the front north-facing slope and one lights the rear south slope. Cast-iron guttering returns to the east elevation, supported on paired corbel brackets to the north, and discharges to a cast-iron downpipe on the east elevation. The south elevation has uPVC guttering and downpipes.

Materials include: roof of slate; rainwater goods of cast iron on the north elevation and uPVC on the south; walling of red brick and painted render on the north elevation and smooth unpainted render on the south; timber sliding sash windows on the north, east, and west faces of the rear return, and timber casements on the south elevation.