Survey Data

Reg No

50110285


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Original Use

House


In Use As

House


Date

1835 - 1840


Coordinates

315389, 233050


Date Recorded

08/05/2017


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Corner-sited end-of-terrace two-bay single-storey house over raised basement, built 1838, having three-bay side (west) elevation along Heytesbury Street. M-profile pitched slate roof, hipped to south-west, with terracotta ridge tiles, red brick chimneystacks having clay pots, brick parapet with cut granite coping and cast-iron rainwater goods. Red brick, laid in stretcher-bond to walls having cut granite plinth course over rendered wall to basement. Carved Portland stone plaque with 'Bell Villa' and carved pointing hand to front (south) elevation. Square-headed window openings having granite sills and two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Elliptical-headed door opening with timber doorcase comprising panelled pilasters and foliate console brackets supporting frieze, timber panelled door and teardrop fanlight. Granite steps with cast-iron coal hole cover to platform, flanked by wrought-iron railings with decorative cast-iron collars. Set back from road, with basement-level front and side garden. Basement area bounded by brick plinth wall with granite coping surmounted by wrought-iron railings with decorative cast-iron collars, having curved alignment to main entrance steps. Recent gate to basement level. Basement door beneath entrance steps.

Appraisal

This house retains its original facade composition and many historic features including its double panelled door and tear drop fanlight which are characteristic of its early/mid-nineteenth-century date. The shared scale and features of the houses contribute to the unified residential character of the locality. The streetscape is further enhanced by the retention of elegant iron railings. Pleasants Street, along with its neighbouring roads, forms part of early Victorian neighbourhood located to the west of Camden Street, characterised by these small genteel townhouses. The street is named after the philanthropist Thomas Pleasants (1729-1818) who donated money towards the establishment of the nearby Meath Hospital. This house (along with its neighbours Nos. 2-10) were the first buildings constructed on the street in the late 1830s. The terrace was historically called Bell Villa, as inscribed on the plaque on the facade of No. 1, with a carved hand pointing in an easterly direction towards the rest of the street.