Description

CHELTENHAM

SO9421NW LANSDOWN ROAD 630-1/17/450 (North side) 05/05/72 Nos.4-14 (Consecutive) Lansdown Place (terrace) and Montpellier Court and attached railings (Formerly Listed as: LANSDOWN ROAD (North side) Nos.5-29 (Consecutive) (Lansdown Place)) (Formerly Listed as: LANSDOWN ROAD (North side) Montpellier Court and No.4 Lansdown Place)

GV II*

Includes: Nos.1-20 (former Nos.1, 2 and 3 Lansdown Road) MONTPELLIER COURT. Terrace of 14 houses, now houses, flats, offices and basement shop and attached area railings, railings to sides of steps, and end railings to No.14. Houses numbered right to left, described left to right. 1825-35 with later alterations. Begun by JB Papworth for Pearson Thompson and completed in similar style by RW and C Jearrad. Ashlar (some painted) over brick with mansard slate roof, stucco and brick party-wall stacks and iron verandahs and railings. PLAN: an almost symmetrical design of houses in pairs with paired recessed entrance ranges and Montpellier Court to the right, with its main facade to right return; service ranges to rear. EXTERIOR: mainly 3 storeys on basements, some entrance bays of 2 storeys, 50 first-floor windows (from left to right) 1:6:2:6:2:6:2:5:2:6:2:6:2:1:2:3. Of the main 6-window ranges, end bays break forwards; the rhythm is worked out to right with 1-window-bay breakforward, 2 set back and end 3-window breakforward of which the left breaks forward again. Ashlar detailing includes horizontal rustication to ground floor; first-floor band; frieze and cornice above first floor, and with crowning frieze, cornice and blocking course. Entrance ranges mainly set back behind shared loggias. Mainly 2/2 horizontal-pane and 6/6 sashes (where original), several retaining blind boxes; attics have 6/6 sashes, some round-arched 3/3 sashes and casements. Entrances, flights of

steps (roll-edged where original) to 6-fielded-panel doors with sidelights and overlights, some behind paired loggias with pilaster between, round-arches with imposts and tooled heads with keystones, entablature. Right return (Montpellier Court) a 6-window facade with further, lower service range. Similar horizontal rustication and 6/6 sashes. Central entrance to main range, steps to 6-fielded-panel double doors with side-lights and overlight with glazing bars within solid porch with Doric pilasters and entablature, glazed to sides. Rear retains many 6/6 and 8/8 sashes; No.8 has canted bay with 6/6 between 2/2 sashes. INTERIOR: retain original joinery including panelled shutters to some windows, and panelled doors; narrow-open-well staircases where original have alternate iron stick and embellished rods with wreathed handrail (including to Montpellier Court); service stairs have stick balusters. Plasterwork includes embellished cornices. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: first-floor verandahs have Carron Company double-heart-and-anthemion motif balustrade and openwork frieze; area railings have embellished X-motif. Railings to sides of steps have lancet and fleurs-de-lys finials, some with dogbars. End railings to No.14 have arrowheads, embellished and anthemion finials. HISTORICAL NOTE: Lansdown Place is shown on Papworth's plan as a 'streight' plot and is 'the only part of his original Lansdown design to have been completed largely as he intended. It consists of 15 pairs of houses, each joined to those on either side by a pair of recessed doorways'. Building began in 1825 and fourteen houses had been completed by 1828. Probably another 5 houses had been finished by the time the Jearrad brothers bought the development from Thompson in 1830. From then it was finished to Jearrad's direction with minor alterations to Papworth's design. Papworth's drawings for Lansdown Place are in the RIBA library. One of the most significant terrace designs in Britain representing in its visual depth and variation of composition a definite move away from the more rigid confines of the Classical tradition. Forms a continuous design of quasi semi-detached houses with Nos 15-29 (consec) Lansdown Place, Lansdown Road (qv). (The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 141; Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum: John Papworth, Architect. An exhibition of plans and drawings: Cheltenham: 1978-; Sampson A and Blake S: A Cheltenham Companion: Cheltenham: 1993-: 69).

Listing NGR: SO9414921778

External Links

• Wikidata Q17535451

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