Victoria Terrace

Victoria Terrace (Nos 1-20)

A large-scale, grandly-designed late-Georgian terrace of emphatically urban conception. It comprises a symmetrical composition of 10 houses of 3 storeys, with basements, cellars and attics. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar over a rock-faced basement, with a slate roof behind a moulded cornice and parapet, and transverse stone stacks.

The front elevation spans 28 bays. Houses 2-9 are 3-bay units, while Nos 1 and 10 have 2 bays to the front. The central 4 bays are brought forward under a pediment, with double-height pilasters over channelled rustication in the lower storey. Middle storey windows have cornices on consoles. To the right and left, the elevation is slightly splayed, and bays 2-4 and 25-7 are also brought forward with similar treatment to the central bays. A plat band divides the lower and middle storeys.

Windows vary by storey: round-headed windows with small-pane sashes occupy the lower storey (sash windows have been reinstated in Nos 3, 4 and 7, replacing inserted French doors), positioned under tripartite lintels. The middle storey has 12-pane hornless sashes with panelled aprons, and the upper storey contains 9-pane hornless sashes. Entrances are reached via stone steps (replaced to No 1), mostly with square panelled terminal piers at the bottom. Fielded-panel doors feature round-headed radial-glazed overlights. Basement windows are visible in some houses. Nos 2 and 6 each have louvred openings, while Nos 5, 9 and 10 have blocked windows.

No 1 presents 2 bays to the front, with the left-hand bay rounded and containing triple 8-pane hornless sashes in the lower storey with moulded impost band carried over the windows and apron; a similar but plainer square-headed middle storey window; and a square-headed triple 6-pane sash window in the upper storey. The left-hand return elevation is 3 bays with similar details. Basement windows have railed lightwells, except the right-hand bay where the window is blocked.

No 10 has 2 bays to the front, with the right-hand bay inscribed with 'Victoria Terrace' into the first-floor band. The entrance lies in the 3-bay return elevation, a central pointed entrance with stone steps up to a recessed replacement half-glazed door. This elevation has square-headed windows with 12-pane and 9-pane hornless sashes, though the left-hand bay is blind. Basement windows are blocked.

The rear elevation is pebble-dashed and effectively 4-storey, as the ground sits at basement level. The 4 central bays are recessed. A balcony spans the first floor, providing access to upper-level apartments (Nos 12-20), reached by stone steps at either end. Basement and ground storeys feature, to each 2-window apartment, 3-light and 4-light steel-framed casement windows and half-glazed steel-framed doors, inserted in 1937. At upper level, each apartment has a half-glazed door under a tall overlight with latticework glazing, with small-pane sash windows. No 19 also has an inserted window to the right in the upper storey.

At the right end, the projecting gable end of No 1 has a lean-to in the lower storey, two 12-pane hornless sashes in the middle storey, two 9-pane hornless sashes in the upper storey, and in the attic, two 12-pane horizontal-sliding sashes and a 4-pane horned sash window. At the left end, the entrance to No 20 is in the return elevation, with a half-glazed door and inserted window to its left.