1-3 St George's Terrace, Railings and Boundary Wall to Numbers 1 and 2, Blockley, Gloucestershire

Description

BLOCKLEY

8/6/24 ST GEORGE'S TERRACE
26-AUG-83 1-3 St George's Terrace, Railings and
Boundary Wall to Numbers 1 and 2

(Formerly listed as:
ST GEORGE'S TERRACE
RAILINGS, AND FRONT RETAINING WALL TO
NUMBERS 1 AND 2)
(Formerly listed as:
ST GEORGE'S TERRACE
1-3)

GV II
A terrace of three town houses, constructed in the earlier part of the C19, with later rear extensions, together with front boundary railings and a boundary wall to numbers 1 and 2.

MATERIALS: Golden, ashlar-quality limestone rubble, under slate roofs, with stone stacks.

PLAN: The terrace is orientated east-west, with the main elevations facing south. The houses are double-depth on plan, originally with outshuts to the rear, now with larger extensions. Each has rooms to either side of a central entrance hall.

EXTERIOR: The terrace comprises three houses, each of two storeys and three bays, The main elevation has central entrance doorways, plat bands above ground and first floors, and a deep gap above the first floor to hide an attic storey. The third bay from the right is the subject of a flying freehold, whereby the ground floor, housing an elliptical carriage opening with heavily-studded double doors, belongs to Number 2, while the room above, denoted from the outside by a sash window above the carriage opening, belongs to Number 1. Number 3 carries the inscription ST GEORGE'S TERRACE. Each house has a cast-iron, tented porch, within which is set a four-panelled door, and over-door light with geometric tracery and some coloured glass. The main elevation has six-over-six sash windows set in plain reveals. There are axial gable end stacks and similar ridge stacks at the party walls. The eastern return has segmental-arched windows and a cellar light. The rear elevations of the buildings, constructed from limestone rubble with ashlar quoins, are irregular, with various extensions, having timber casement windows.

INTERIOR: Number 2 only inspected internally. The ground floor has a central entrance hall with moulded doorcases and panelled doors. The principal rooms to the front retain period fireplaces, architraves and moulded cornice, that to the east also having shutters. To the rear, the former kitchen has a later C19 fireplace with tile inserts, and a flagstone floor. Beyond the original rear wall is a later extension with terracotta tile floor, and a further later C20 extension housing a single room. The stair is enclosed, with a moulded newel post and plain stick balusters to the first floor landing. First floor doors are four-panelled examples similar to those on the ground floor, with slender moulded surrounds, picture rails and skirting. The rooms to the rear have been partly reordered, due to the later extension. The principal first-floor room has a small C19 fireplace with cast-iron grate. The attic rooms have early-C19 plank and batten doors, and the roof structure is exposed. It is a shallow-pitched roof with trusses formed from pegged principal rafters, tie beam and a series of vertical struts, and single purlins; carpenter's marks remain visible despite later iron reinforcement to the joints.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: The terrace is bounded to the front by railings with enriched heads and standards, and a wall of stone with vermiculated rustication and reeded coping outside numbers 1 and 2, which extends along the returns to the carriage opening.

HISTORY: The buildings now comprising 1-3 St George's Terrace were constructed shortly after 1800, on the north-eastern edge of the established village of Blockley, on part of the adjacent Northwick Park Estate. The new development included St George's Terrace, together with a number of other substantial and more modest dwellings and almshouses, set around a large village green. At this time, it appears that all the buildings on the north side of the street now including St George's Terrace were known collectively as St George's Place. The houses remained in the ownership of the Northwick Park Estate, but were leased to a succession of owners. Among the residents recorded was Thomas Rolls, a surgeon, who lived in the Terrace during the 1860s; it may be from this period that a now-fragmentary inscription including the word "Infirmary" was added above the carriage opening between numbers 1 and 2. At this time, it appears that these two buildings were in the same occupation, as an inscription discovered during renovation work at number 2 records the blocking of a first-floor doorway between the two houses in 1872. Between 1897 and 1916, 2 St George's Terrace was occupied by Frederick Anthony, Lady Northwick's private secretary, and his family. Following the passing of the 1920 Act of Parliament imposing 40 per cent inheritance tax, the Northwick Park estate sold off some 84 properties in the village, among them St George's Terrace. The buildings were extended to the rear during the earlier C20, replacing small outshuts with larger, two-storey gabled blocks.

SOURCES: A History of the County of Worcester (Victoria County History), Volume 3 (1913), 265-76; Verey, D and Brooks, A, The Buildings of England - Gloucestershire I: The Cotswolds (1999), 185

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: 1-3 St George's Terrace, their boundary wall and railings, are designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* The terrace, dating from the earlier part of the C19, is well-designed in a polite, classically-inspired style, demonstrating good quality in materials and construction
* The three houses retain a number of good features of the period, including their tented cast-iron porches, sash windows and original front doors
* The buildings are relatively little altered
* They retain their front boundary wall of vermiculated, rusticated stone with elegant railings
* Group value with the adjacent buildings, Elm House and Pear Trees (both listed Grade II), and the other listed buildings of similar date around the village green

External Links

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