house

Terraced three-bay two-storey house, c.1770, retaining early fenestration to first floor. Renovated, c.1905, with timber shopfront inserted to ground floor. Extended, c.1970, comprising single-bay three-storey return to rear to south-west. In use as offices to first floor. Gable-ended roof with slate. Clay ridge tiles. Rendered chimney stacks (shared). Cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves course. Rendered walls. Ruled and lined. Painted. Square-headed window openings to first floor. Stone sills. Early 2/2 timber sash windows. Timber shopfront, c.1905, to ground floor with panelled pilasters, fixed-pane timber display windows in tripartite arrangement and glazed timber doors having timber fascia over (possibly replacement). Road fronted. Concrete flagged footpath to front.

This house, which dates to the earliest phase of construction on the planned Main Street, has been very well maintained to present an early aspect on to the road. Renovated in the early twentieth century to accommodate a commercial use to ground floor, the timber shopfront is an attractive addition to the composition, although the symmetrical arrangement is not in keeping with the asymmetrical distribution of openings to the first floor (which are, in turn, at odds with the regular, balanced arrangements of the neighbouring houses in the terrace, thus providing visual incident to the streetscape). Many early shopfronts have been replaced with misguided modern interpretations of the traditional form, and this example ought to be preserved if and when the building is converted to an alternative use. The house retains many important early or original features and materials, including timber sash fenestration and cast-iron rainwater goods to the slate roof. The house is of considerable importance for its age and for continuing the established streetline of the planned street, while contributing to the regular roofline of the terrace as it proceeds to meet with the entrance to the Carton estate to north-east.