Survey Data
Reg No
50930141
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1815 - 1835
Coordinates
316495, 232871
Date Recorded
28/08/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay four-storey over basement former townhouse, built c. 1825, as a pair with No. 14 (50930142). Two-storey return to rear (east) elevation. Now in use as office. M-profiled roof, hipped to south, concealed by ashlar granite parapet with moulded cornice and blocking course. Two shouldered brick chimneystacks to north party wall with lipped clay pots. Parapet gutters. Red brick walling in Flemish bond with rusticated ashlar granite walling to ground floor and rendered walling to basement beneath granite plinth course. Square-headed window openings, largely with brick voussoirs, rendered reveals and masonry sills. Decorative cast-iron balconettes to first-floor windows, wrought-iron guard rails to second floor. Largely multi-paned timber sliding sash windows; possibly original six-over-six to third floor and ten-over-ten to basement, one-over-one to ground floor and replacement bipartite timber casements to first and second floors with incorporated overlights. Round-headed door opening with moulded reveals and recessed doorcase with projecting moulded cornice and frieze carried on fluted Doric columns, with petal iron fanlight and raised-and-field timber panelled door with beaded-muntin. Granite entrance platform with cast-iron boot scraper, approached by three nosed granite steps, flanked by cast-iron railings with decorative finials over carved granite plinth, enclosing basement well to north. Recent timber steps to basement well with replacement door in plain surrounds beneath entrance platform. Coal-hole cover to pavement. Elliptical-headed carriage-arch to boundary on Lad Lane Upper, with brick voussoirs, raked cornice, dressed stone surrounds and steel roller shutter. Abutted to south by rubble stone wall with brick coping and square-headed pedestrian opening with dressed stone surrounds and replacement timber door. Modernised former mews building to rear (east) plot abutted by two-storey flat-roofed extension, c. 1900, which fronts onto Lad Lane Upper, with rendered painted walls, replacement timber casement windows and former square-headed carriage-arch, now infilled with a multi-paned display window.
Appraisal
Despite some alterations, including the insertion of some timber casements to the principal façade, No. 13, with its Doric doorcase and fanlight, contributes to the historic streetscape character of Fitzwilliam Place. Developed in conjunction with the east and south sides of Fitzwilliam Square, the eastern side of Fitzwilliam Place was completed by 1836, with the exception of five houses to the south-end. Built in pairs or groups, the house designs emulated those of Fitzwilliam Square South. Although the street is largely homogeneous in character, the variations in detailing, proportions and scale are indicative of the speculative nature of development.