Listed Building: FREDERICK PLACE (TERRACE) (467952)

WEYMOUTH SY6779SE ST THOMAS STREET 873-1/20/368 (West side) 12/12/53 Nos.1-12 (Consecutive) Frederick Place (terrace) GV II Terrace of 12 houses. Finished c1834 (RCHME). Flemish bond yellow brickwork, but Nos 1-5, returned ends and all of backs, rendered, ashlar basement wall, slate roofs. PLAN: RCHME (p.356) gives a plan for No.8, with central transverse dogleg staircase, but some units (eg. No.6) have a side staircase to the rear. Several ground floors have been given over to shop fronts. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, attic and basement. There are 9 flat-roofed dormers behind the parapet, and each house is 2 windows wide; the original layout was with two 9-pane sashes to the second floor, above a 2-storey bowed oriel with 8:12:8-pane sashes near-centre, and a blind window to the left at first floor. This was above the arched doorway in 2 recessed orders containing a 6-panel door under a reeded transom and plain fanlight, on 7+1 stone steps with nosings, and spearhead railings returned to the doorway, carried across the frontage, with a gate at the right end giving to tight stone winder stairs to the basement area. A large sash in the plane of the wall was located under the oriel in the basement. Plat bands at first- and second-floor levels, and a moulded stone cornice, with blocking-course and coped parapet. Alterations to this include: a canted dormer to No.1, with the parapet cut away in front, and a C20 shop frontage, which returns to Westham Road. The oriel is at first and second floors, rather than ground and first; No.2 has a similar oriel, no glazing bars, a full width C20 dormer, and C20 shop front; No.3 has a C20 shop front; No.4 has the oriel as Nos 1 & 2, glazing bars to the upper half of sashes only, a wide dormer with the parapet dropped in front, and a C19 pilaster shop front with fascia and cornice, inflected to the oriel above. The glazing has slender mullions, and curved glass ends, to a pair of splayed doors under transom lights, under a range of lights with diagonal bars across the whole width, including the recess; No.5 has no glazing bars in the oriel, and a C20 shop front. Nos 1-5 have no railings or steps, and the basement areas have been covered. There are shop fronts and no areas also to Nos 6, 9 & 12. Nos 9, 10 & 12 have 4-pane sashes with plain sashed oriels. The return to Westham Road has a very broad coped gable with wide central stack concealing a central valley. It is 3 windows wide, with a central recessed arched panel containing a blind lunette over a 9-pane sash, and a small canted oriel with plain sash, displaced to the left; each side of this are sashes with 6 panes (probably originally 12-paned), but a 2-light casement replacement to the second floor, right. A C20 shopfront with piers continues below a C20 extension to right. The return at the left-hand end, adjoining the Masonic Hall (qv) is plain, rising to a high parapet beyond the gable stack. Stacks remain generally to Nos 6-12, but have been cropped or taken away in the first group of 5. The rear of the terrace, facing Great George Street, is much more varied, reflecting the piecemeal development behind the standardised fronts. No.1 has a high double-gable roof, and later extensions, but Nos 2-5 have a deep mansard rear slope, with dormers at 2 levels, some glazing-bar sashes remain below. No.6 has an original small central 6-pane dormer behind a parapet, and above sashes to the left with 9, 12 and 12 panes, plus a deep 27-paned stair window to the right; the lower ground floor has a flat-roofed extension. No.7 has 2 similar dormers and parapet, with two 9- above 12-paned sashes, then, at the upper ground floor 2 pairs of French doors with margin-panes to a slate-roofed verandah on trellis supports and balustrade. At lower ground floor is a 4-pane sash and a doorway. No.8 has 2 good dormers and parapet, above plain sashes, and appears to have been built as a pair with No.7, but has lost the verandah, and has a large C20 flat-roofed extension. Nos 9 & 10 are less deep than those on either side, but with the same parapet height; No.9 has 2 dormers, and No.10 has 1, with sash arrangements as to No.6. Nos 11 & 12 each have a single 6-pane dormer, with varied lights and extensions below. INTERIOR: not generally inspected, but No.7 has a stick baluster stair at the rear, left, and there are panelled window shutters and reeded cornices. This appears to have been a characteristic example of speculative development, with the facade to the terrace determined, but the completion thereafter subject to differing requirements. The relatively late development occurred as this was previously garden area to Gloucester Lodge (qv); Westham Road appears to have been created at the time of the development. A fine terrace with consistent frontage to St Thomas Street, apart from the rendering to the first group and insertion of some shop fronts. (RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 354; Ricketts E: The Buildings of Old Weymouth: Melcombe Regis and Westham: Weymouth: 1976-: 54). Listing NGR: SY6794879093

Record last edited

Dec 17 2018 11:11AM