officer's house

Terraced five-bay single-storey officer's house, built 1794, on a rectangular plan. Sold, 1901[?]. Renovated to accommodate continued private residential use. Pitched slate roof with lichen-covered clay ridge tiles terminating in cement rendered chimney stacks having capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta tapered pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-limestone eaves retaining cast-iron downpipe. Roughcast walls. Square-headed central door opening with drag edged dragged cut-limestone block-and-start surround centred on triple keystone framing replacement glazed timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled door. Square-headed flanking window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement aluminium casement windows replacing six-over-six timber sash windows. Set in grounds originally shared with Westport Infantry Barrack.

An officer's house erected as one of a terrace of four identical units (including 31212154 - 31212155; 31212157) surviving as an interesting relic of the late eighteenth-century Westport Infantry Barrack (Accounts and Papers…Army; Navy; Ordnance 1847, 74) with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on a robust doorcase demonstrating good quality workmanship. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the historic or original fabric: the introduction of replacement fittings to the openings, however, has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of an officer's house forming part of a neat self-contained ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in Prospect Avenue.