Nos 89/91 Main Street

Two houses in a single range, built as grade II* heritage properties. No 89 is the principal house, comprising four closely-spaced bays, whilst No 91, the former service range, contains only two bays though of similar overall scale.

The exterior is faced in unpainted stucco lined as ashlar, with a high plain parapet and plinth. End stacks and one chimney between the houses are rendered, with the parapet continuing in a curve up the end walls to the chimney heads. Both houses feature small-paned hornless sash windows: nine-pane to the top floor and twelve-pane to the first floor, each with tooled stone sills.

No 89's ground floor has, from right to left: a twentieth-century renewed sixteen-pane sash window aligned between the two upper right windows; a doorway in the third bay with a fine stucco doorcase featuring three-quarter Ionic columns and entablature; a six-panel door with the upper four panels fielded and a lion-mask knocker; a stone step with two bootscrapers; and a twentieth-century renewed sixteen-pane sash window in the left bay. The second window from the right on the top floor is dummy. No 91's ground floor openings are not aligned with those above, being set to the right: a low ledged door to a through passage to the right and a twentieth-century renewed twelve-pane sash to the left.

The rear of No 89 rises to four storeys and has a wing projecting to the left with an early nineteenth-century curved bow at basement level and three long sixteen-pane sashes on each floor above, with a shallow hipped roof behind. A two-storey, two-bay lean-to projects to the right. Some slate-hanging is present. The rear wing to No 91 has a red brick chimney and is slate-hung to first-floor level on the west.

Interior

The fine interior has been carefully restored in the early twenty-first century. The front hall features a tile floor with encaustic tile border and a centre mosaic with the initials of W. O. Hulne. A nineteenth-century black marble fireplace stands opposite a fielded-panelled six-panel door to a wig-cupboard, with boarded dado and moulded cornice throughout. The doorway to the hall has Georgian Gothic tracery to its fanlight.

The west front room has a fielded-panelled six-panel door, a polished black marble nineteenth-century fireplace with cast-iron grate, moulded cornice, acanthus ceiling rose, and panelled shutters. An arched hall arch connects to the stair hall, which has a nineteenth-century half-glazed door with etched coloured glass. A broad first flight of stairs rises to a half-landing with a nineteenth-century etched and coloured glass window featuring roses in border and yellow crosses in patterned panes.

The drawing room in the rear wing has a very large curved southern end with long sash windows, apparently added to an original room which has a leaf cornice, rose-scroll ceiling border, and acanthus centre rose with leaf sprays. A nineteenth-century marble chimneypiece with two columns and brass and iron grate occupies one wall. The room was originally wallpapered on canvas. A doorcase with reeded pilasters, cherubs and festoons has a fielded-panelled reveal. An open-well stair with ramped scrolled rail, three flights and landing, square newels, and closed string provides vertical circulation.

The first-floor east front room has a leaf cornice and leaf ceiling border, a nineteenth-century plain fireplace and grate, and fielded-panelled shutters. A narrow dressing-room, now bathroom, has fielded-panelled doors and panelled shutters. The west room at this level has a fielded-panelled door, simple cornice, and panelled shutters. From the landing above, access is given to a bow-ended room in the rear wing, with reeded ceiling border, four-panel fielded-panelled door, and long windows in surrounds with reeded pilasters and corner roundels. Shutters are present on the stair window. The attic above the rear wing has a hipped roof with two pegged collar trusses, apparently of reused timbers. The top-floor east room in the front range has a simple fireplace; the west room has one window only, the dummy window not being apparent internally. A fielded-panelled six-panel door provides access to under-stair storage.

Between Nos 89 and 91 is a tall narrow stone-vaulted through passage, now enclosed.

The basement kitchen is bow-ended with a slate-flagged floor, cupboards on the west wall (double to left, single to right), and a frame of cast-iron range between with panelled pilasters and shelf. Three beams are present, one bead-moulded. A wine-cellar under the stairs has slate shelves. A cellar under the front range has a cobbled floor and ceiling beam.

No 91 is much altered internally, with rooms in the rear wing at a different level from those in front. A simple stair with square balusters and square newels in four flights provides access. The front room has a slate fireplace with half-columns and roundels above, with a later nineteenth-century ornate cast-iron grate, plain panelled shutters, and four-panel doors to the top floor.