34 Victory Avenue, Gretna

34 Victory Avenue, Gretna is part of a terrace of 2-storey housing designed by Raymond Unwin and Courtnay M Crickmer in 1916. The building forms one element of a larger U-plan grouping of three rows of terraced housing arranged around a central courtyard at numbers 30-52 Victory Avenue.

The structure is built in red brick, an unusual residential building material in Scotland. The entrance door features a consoled flat canopy. The ground floor window openings are predominantly segmental-arched. The building has a piended roof with grey slates and a corniced ridge stack.

The terrace is part of a planned housing development for workers at the nearby munitions factory, which operated during the First World War. The town was designed according to Garden City principles, with green spaces integrated among the housing and a central street containing shops and community facilities. Raymond Unwin oversaw the overall development, whilst Courtnay M Crickmer served as resident architect. The U-plan grouping at 30-52 Victory Avenue is the only surviving example of such small clustered housing groups in Gretna and remains significant to the overall character of the planned town.

Most of the original windows and doors have been replaced with non-traditional materials and glazing patterns. Early photographs show the buildings originally featured small-pane timber sash and case windows. Some later properties in the row have been finished with pebble dash render.

The south row of the U-plan grouping is symmetrical across nine bays, with a pair of advanced central gables topped with ball finials. The east and west rows each measure eight bays.