Victoria Terrace

Victoria Terrace, 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 buildings are 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.

The central composition consists of numbers 2-9, which are 3-bay houses, whilst numbers 1 and 10 are 2-bay houses. The central 4 bays are brought forward under a pediment, with double-height pilasters over channelled rustication in the lower storey. Windows in the middle storey have cornices on consoles. To the right and left the elevation is slightly splayed, and bays 2-4 and 25-27 are also brought forward with similar treatment to the central 4 bays. A plat band runs between the lower and middle storeys.

Windows in the lower storey are round-headed with small-pane sashes under tripartite lintels. The middle storey has 12-pane hornless sashes with panelled aprons, whilst the upper storey has 9-pane hornless sashes. Entrances are reached up stone steps (replaced at number 1), mostly with square panelled terminal piers at the bottom. Fielded-panel doors have round-headed radial-glazed overlights. Basement windows are visible in some houses. Numbers 2 and 6 each have louvred openings, whilst numbers 5, 9 and 10 have blocked windows. In numbers 3, 4 and 7, sash windows have been reinstated in place of previously inserted French doors.

Number 1 has a 2-bay front, the left-hand bay being rounded with triple 8-pane hornless sashes in the lower storey, with a moulded impost band carried over the windows and apron. The middle storey has a similar but plainer square-headed window, and the upper storey has a square-headed triple 6-pane sash window. The left-hand return elevation comprises 3 bays with similar details. Basement windows have railed lightwells except in the right-hand bay, where the window is blocked.

Number 10 has a 2-bay front, with 'Victoria Terrace' inscribed into the first-floor band of the right-hand bay. The entrance is located in the 3-bay return elevation, comprising a central pointed entrance with stone steps up to a recessed, replacement half-glazed door. It 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 level is at basement level. The central 4 bays are recessed. A balcony spans the first floor, providing access to upper-level apartments (numbers 12-20), reached by stone steps at either end. The basement and ground storeys contain 3-light and 4-light steel-framed casement windows and half-glazed steel-framed doors inserted in 1937, serving each 2-window apartment. At the upper level, each apartment has a half-glazed door beneath a tall overlight with latticework glazing, alongside small-pane sash windows. Number 19 has an additional inserted window to the right in the upper storey. At the right end, the projecting gable end of number 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 number 20 is in the return elevation, with a half-glazed door and inserted window to its left.

The entrance hall contains a vestibule created in the late 20th century, with an arch featuring radial glazing leading to the former stair hall. The drawing room to the left has panelled shutters.