house

Attached two-bay four-storey over basement former townhouse, built c. 1820, as a pair with No. 17 Fitzwilliam Square East (50930128). Two-storey return to rear (east). Now in use as offices. M-profiled slate roof, hipped to south of west span, concealed by ashlar granite parapet with moulded cornice and blocking course. Shouldered brick chimneystack with lipped clay pots to north party wall, parapet gutters with cast-iron downpipe and hopper to north side. Red-brick walling laid in Flemish bond over coursed tooled limestone walling to basement beneath granite plinth course. Slate-clad elevation to east (rear). Square-headed window openings with brick voussoirs, rendered reveals and granite sills. Iron guard rails to third and second floor openings and cast-iron balconettes to first floor. Largely six-over-six sliding timber sash windows without horns, three-over-three to third floor and those to ground floor and basement have horns with reeded glass to basement. Some Wyatt-style windows to rear (east). Round-headed door opening with moulded reveals, brick voussoirs and Ionic doorcase with freestanding Ionic columns on plinth stops supporting plain frieze and cornice surmounted by decorative iron fanlight over raised-and-field timber panelled door. Granite entrance platform approached by six granite steps flanked by iron railings with decorative corner posts over granite plinth, enclosing basement to north. Coal-hole cover to pavement. Street fronted on the eastern side of Fitzwilliam Place, adjoining Fitzwilliam Square East to the north. Modernised (or replacement) two-storey flat-roofed mews building to rear plot (east). Ashlar limestone elliptical-headed carriage-arch to eastern boundary on Lads Lane having brick voussoirs, lead-lined raked coping and timber gates, abutted by random limestone wall with square-headed door opening having recent timber door and brick surrounds.

Built as part of a pair with No. 17 to the north (50930128) by the contractors Henry, Mullins & McMahon, and is characterised by well-balanced proportions and restrained detailing, enriched by a classical Ionic doorcase, fanlight and decorative iron work. The rear of both houses are slate-hung, a detail characteristic of the firm. The pair is taller and more refined than neighbouring buildings and forms part of an intact streetscape of late-Georgian townhouses. 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.