Survey Data
Reg No
50930268
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1805 - 1815
Coordinates
316416, 233148
Date Recorded
11/11/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced two-bay four-storey over basement former townhouse, built c. 1810, with three-stage return to rear (west). Now in use as offices. Pitched roof to east with irregular M-profile hipped roofs to rear (west), concealed by brick parapet with granite coping. Shouldered rendered chimneystacks to party walls, lipped clay pots to south with replacement pots to north. Parapet gutters with uPVC downpipe to south end. Red brick walling laid in Flemish bond (largely concealed behind vegetation growth) over rendered walling to basement beneath granite plinth course. Square-headed window openings with brick voussoirs, patent reveals and masonry sills. Largely two-over-two sliding timber sash windows with ogee horns, three-over-three to third floor with convex horns and five-over-five sash to basement (single central pane flanked by twin-paned margins). Wrought-iron guard rails to second floor window openings, decorative cast-iron balconettes to first floor and steel grille affixed to sills of basement opening. Round-headed door opening with brick voussoirs, moulded rendered reveals and recessed rendered surround containing portico with fluted frieze and moulded cornice carried on Ionic columns over plinth stops, cobwebbed fanlight and raised-and-field timber panelled door with brass furniture. Possible iron awning arms and fixtures remain, flanking doorcase and mounted to modified cornice. Granite entrance platform with cast-iron boot scraper, approached by five granite steps flanked by iron railings with decorative cast-iron corner posts over granite plinth, enclosing basement to south-side. Coal-hole cover to pavement. Two-storey flat-roofed mews building to west on Laverty Court with an integral square-headed carriage-arch concealed behind steel roller shutter.
Appraisal
This former townhouse forms part of a relatively intact imposing early-nineteenth century streetscape. Nos 45-48 were built by William Dixon, a timber merchant,(50930267-50930270) (Bryan, 2006). Almost all of the western side was completed between c. 1807-15. Laid out in 1791 by the surveyors J & P Roe, Fitzwilliam Square was the last of the city’s Georgian squares to be completed. Development was staggered, progressing slowly due to the French wars. Although largely homogenous in character and form, the subtle variations between terraces are indicative of the speculative nature of the square’s development.