Laston House

Laston House is a house, originally built as marine baths, dating to the 18th century. It is constructed of painted stucco with a slate hipped roof concealed behind parapets, and features a large stuccoed axial stack on the front wall behind a projecting porch. The building has a single storey and basement facing Castle Square, and two storeys and a basement at the rear.

The five-window elevation to Castle Square has a projecting porch in the centre, flanked by two windows on each side. The ground floor is channelled up to an impost band level, with plain stucco above, a raised band at cornice level, and a roughcast parapet above. Painted tooled stone detailing is used for the stepped plinth, impost band, and upper band. The recessed surround to the centre door is also stone. Windows and the centre doorway within the projecting porch are arched within arched recesses. The porch has quadrant-curved sides with square windows, and a flat facade resembling a minimal triumphal arch, topped by a tall parapet with a thin upper string course and a stepped painted stone blocking course. The parapet is inscribed in Greek letters, translating to "The sea cleanses all the evils of men" (from Euripides). The doors and windows have been altered; the front features 20th-century double doors with an overlight and a blind tympanum, square plate glass windows, and plateglass sash windows with plain fans. One window on the left has been replaced with a half-glazed door, leading to number 2, and includes a three-pane fanlight. Basement windows comprise two 12-pane sashes on the left side and two inserted doors to the right, accessed via steps. The right end wall is blank.

The sea-facing elevation is stuccoed and two storeys high, with large, late 19th-century canted oriel windows on each side of the first floor, each containing a 12-pane sash window. The ground floor has two large 12-pane sashes beneath the left oriel, two smaller 12-pane sashes beneath the centre, and three large 12-pane sashes beneath the right oriel. The basement has a door in the centre and a louvred opening to the left, giving onto a former seawater reservoir or inlet. A curving terrace in front is a modern infill of the former cold baths and reservoir, with an outer retaining wall rebuilt in the late 20th century after storm damage.

Inside, a circular vestibule retains its original plaster ceiling and features a later 19th-century encaustic tile floor. A large room to the right, originally a tea room, has a panelled door and a simple cornice. The staircase has been removed.