18 Monk Street

Nos 16 and 18 Monk Street are a pair of houses dating from the early 19th century, built as a double-depth plan with a basement and three storeys. The front is smooth, rendered and painted at ground floor level, with rusticated detailing. Above, the render imitates vermiculated stonework, topped by a rendered modillion cornice and a parapet. A slate roof is largely hidden from the street, with brick stacks visible. The houses have a shared central Tuscan pediment above the front doors, incorporating a shell design at its centre, a frieze of metopes and triglyphs, and supported by three plain Tuscan columns. Two round-headed doorways lead to six-panel doors, two of which are glazed at No. 16, each with a fanlight above and a flight of steps leading up. The windows are wider at the sides than at the top, with double-hung sashes and glazing bars: the first floor windows have a 6 over 6 pane arrangement, with two outer half-panes on either side; the second floor windows are 3 over 3, also with the two outer panes being half-panes. Chimney stacks are situated on the gable walls of each house.

The rear elevation features a full-height basement with a significant ground level fall towards the river. Modern extensions occupy the centre of the ground floor, flanked either side. The basement and first floor feature 6 over 6 pane sashes with side half-panes as on the front elevation; a central first floor window is shared between the two houses. The second floor windows are 3 over 3, similarly with side half-panes. The houses are notable for their centrally placed, top-lit staircases and shared central rooms at the front and back, creating a flying freehold arrangement.

Inside, a central top-lit staircase has stick baluster details and a continuous mahogany handrail. The remaining joinery and plasterwork is of plain, early 19th-century design.