32 Castle Square, including railings & gate

32 Castle Square, including railings and gate

This is a late Georgian style terrace forming part of the group of houses numbered 32-37 Castle Square. The building comprises 3 storeys with an attic and a 2-storey basement. It is constructed of Flemish-bonded brick with graded slate roofs (though the slate to No 32 has been replaced) set on a moulded wooden cornice. The roofs feature added small skylights and brick and roughcast stacks. The terrace is built on a steep site.

The composition is distinctive. No 33, which projects forward, provides the focal point with its pediment, stucco walls, and 3 symmetrical bays. The other houses have 2 narrow bays each, creating an overall arrangement of 2+3+8 bays across the terrace.

The basements are single-storey to the front, constructed of coursed rubble stone with windows that are mostly replacements in original openings. The principal windows throughout are hornless sashes with thin glazing bars beneath wedge lintels. The upper storey windows are 9-pane, while those in the middle and lower storeys are 12-pane.

No 33 has replaced lower-storey windows in original openings. Its central entrance portico has tapering chamfered square columns on stone bases, with replaced double doors and a plain overlight. The pediment contains a plain cornice and a round-headed attic window incorporating a 2-light casement.

The doorways to Nos 34-37 are located on the left side, while that to No 32 is on the right. Each doorway features a stucco doorcase with pilasters and consoles beneath a shallow hood, with fielded-panel doors under round-headed radial glazed overlights. No 37 has an added porch, and No 35 has glazing inserted into the middle and upper panels of its original door.

No 37 displays particular features. It has a roughcast front and a coursed stone stack with corbelled cap dating from 1911. The flat-roofed porch on the lower left has a 2-centred pointed arch in a dressed surround with a boarded door and a pair of narrow lights in each side wall beneath shouldered lintels. The lower right window is set within an architrave and retains its original 12-pane hornless sash. The middle storey contains 2 oriel windows inserted in the late 19th century on cast iron brackets, with 4-pane sash windows beneath a hipped lead roof with swept eaves, carried on cast iron colonnettes. The upper storey retains original 9-pane hornless sash windows in architraves. The basement retains a small-pane sash window.

The right gable end of No 37 was rebuilt in 1911 in coursed dressed stone following the demolition of adjoining houses. This is commemorated by 2 stone plaques, in Welsh and English, set into the wall, recording Baron Vaynol's gift of land for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911. Each storey has a centrally placed 2-light mullioned window beneath a mould incorporating 2-light casements. The windows feature sill bands 2 courses thick of finely tooled stone.

The rear of No 37 is rendered. Its left gable end is cement rendered; No 31, which was formerly attached, was demolished in the late 20th century. The rear retains mainly small-pane horned sash windows, except for a 6-pane sash window on the upper right and a 9-pane fixed light on the upper left.

The forecourt contains cast iron railings with spear finials on a dwarf freestone wall. The gates to the cellar steps retain ironwork with lattice pattern in chinoiserie style (replaced to No 36 and with an added gate to the left side of No 33), though the gates to the front doors are all replaced. The railings terminate at the right end with a ramped return wall of coursed dressed stone abutting the house. Steps lead down to cellars beneath the pavement.

Inside, the entrance hall features an elliptical arch on consoles leading to the stair. A full-height open-well stair has a wreathed handrail, plain balusters, and moulded tread ends. The basement has straight flights of stairs in each storey. The rear room in the lower storey retains a neo-classical chimneypiece with festoons and egg and dart frieze.