Description

CHELTENHAM

SO9422NE CLARENCE SQUARE 630-1/9/265 (West side) 10/06/70 Nos.20-30 (Consecutive) and attached railings

GV II

Terrace of 10 houses, now houses and flats, and attached railings. Designed c1835-6, built 1840-44. Architect: HS Merrett. Nos 20, 21 and 22 rebuilt to upper stages c1980-90. Stucco over brick with slate roofs; tall brick and stucco party-wall stacks with cornices; iron railings. PLAN/EXTERIOR: symmetrical composition with Tudor-Gothic elements, the central 5 houses have 3 storeys of which the outer 2 are gabled, then two 2-storey houses and one 2-storey with attic to gable house to ends; all on basements, 19 first-floor windows (No.20 has 1, otherwise 2 per house) of which there are alternate 2-storey-on-basement canted bays. Gothic detailing includes: battlements to bays; hoodmoulds; 4-centre-arched doorways in engaged porches with 'gabled off-set buttresses', surmounted by slender octagonal turrets with blind arcade between. Off-centre left entrances (except to No.20 in left return), flights of mainly roll-edged steps to mainly 4-panelled doors (some have lancet panels) with overlights with glazing bars (those to Nos 22 and 26 have Gothic glazing bars); to left return are off-set 'pilasters' with cornice and C20 door within. Mainly 6/6 sashes throughout, those to Nos 21 and 23 have blind boxes; some 8/8 sashes to basements. Decorative barge-boards to gables, except to No.23. First-floor cornices to canted bays, first- and second-floor plat bands, cornice and blocking course. Decorative barge-boards to No.27. Rear: many 6/6 sashes remain. INTERIOR: some original joinery remains including shutters to some windows, otherwise not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: mainly lancet and stick railings to sides of steps. Forecourt balustrade to No.27 has Carron Company double-heart-and-anthemion motif; lancet railings to No.30. HISTORICAL NOTE: built as part of the development of this area undertaken for Joseph Pitt in 1825-42 (the Pittville Estate), the general layout being designed by the architect John Forbes. Merrett drew up designs for houses on the west side of Clarence Square on succeeding Stokes as Pitt's architect and surveyor in 1835. The Square was laid out in the late 1820s, building began in 1832; it was named after the Duke of Clarence, who became William IV in 1830.

An unusual choice of style for a Cheltenham terrace, distinguished by its strong rhythmic effect of canted full-height bays. (Blake S: Pittville: 1824-1860: Cheltenham: 1988-: 37,60; Cheltenham Local History Society Journal, Vol I: Blake S: Henry Merrett's Plan of Cheltenham: 1983-).



Listing NGR: SO9498522982

External Links

• Wikidata Q26666531

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