Cornwall House

Cornwall House, located at Nos. 56 and 58 Monnow Street, is a building of group value dating to around 1730, with later alterations in the early 19th century. The building is set back from the street, backing onto a garden block with staircases situated between.

The street elevation is three storeys over a basement, featuring a five-window arrangement. It is stuccoed and painted, with a slate roof largely concealed from view. The façade is characterised by rusticated quoins and horizontal bands at the first and second floors. A central six-panel fielded door (at No. 58) is sheltered by an early 19th-century Doric portico, adorned with a fanlight. To the left is a doorway (at No. 56) framed by a pediment, fanlight, and a six-panel door. A plain service door is set within a moulded architrave on the right side. The windows are predominantly early 19th-century sashes with six-over-six panes, with the ground-floor windows rebated and the first-floor windows flush framed. The upper floor features three-over-three pane sashes. A moulded cornice and parapet tops the building and a hipped roof incorporates side wall stacks. One-storey wings flank the central block, each with a doorway.

The garden elevation presents a wider, more elaborate front in a Palladian style. Constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with stucco details, it is covered by a Welsh slate roof. The two-storey elevation with attics and a basement is arranged over seven bays (2 + 3 + 2), with the central section set forward beneath a pediment. Rusticated quoins appear at the ends, centre, and on a ground-floor window. Stucco is also used for the window keys and surround to the pediment window. Ground floor sashes are six-over-six pane with rubbed brick heads. The central section originally served as the garden entrance, but has been altered to incorporate part-glazed double doors with segmental heads, flanked by wide steps leading to a pair of double doors and a fanlight. The upper floor windows are six-over-six pane sashes, the central ones with segmental heads, though less pronounced than those on the ground floor. A heavy cornice runs along the top and is topped by a pediment containing a Diocletian window with a triple keyed head. Dormers punctuate the hipped roof, and brick stacks are situated on either wall and centrally. Returned elevations are rendered and painted.

During a resurvey in July 2004, only the ground floor was observed. The front room is distinguished by full-height panelling, believed to be original, further suggesting a date of around 1730. The staircase, an early 19th-century design using a continuous mahogany handrail, is lit from a side wall. The rear room retains a cornice which may be original, and some 18th-century joinery is present throughout the building.