Park Village east

XC—PARK VILLAGE EAST

Park Village East is across the canal (filled in, 1942–3), stretching in a long line between the towing path and the railway. The greater part of this lay-out was destroyed when the railway-cutting was widened (1900–6.)

The remaining houses, on the west side of the road, all of which, unless separately stated, were leased to Thomas Courtney Lancefield, in 1824, on the nomination of John Nash, are numbered (even numbers only) from north to south.

Nos. 2 and 4 are a pair with similar, but not identical, plans. In front are two adjoining staircase halls, with entrances approached by eight steps arranged against projecting wings that form the front rooms. These rooms are lit from the side walls and towards the road have large projecting chimney stacks that cut through the deeply projecting eaves of the hipped roofs and terminate in four octagonal shafts. The windows on the first floor are of Tudor type with hood mouldings and there are dormers in the roof with miniature hips and finials. The walls between the wings are dressed with trellis, out of which elaborate porches are formed. Each house has two rooms towards the garden and the more important ones have deep bay windows, semicircular in No. 2 and looking north, semi-octagonal in No. 4 and looking west. Both are furnished with balconies at ground-floor level and are taken up as towers, that of No. 2 having three floors (including the basement, which on this side is above ground) and that of No. 4, four floors. The windows are of Tudor type and the roofs of the towers vary, that on the west being treated as an octagonal cupola. (Plate 91.)

Nos. 6 and 8 are also a pair, each plan corresponding to the other. The whole is designed as a central block of four rooms (two back and two front) three storeys high above the basement and roofed with low-pitched Italianate gables to the road and the garden, with an arcade of five arches in the second storey, the two outer ones being pierced for windows. The front angles of the main block are quoined. At the sides are two wings, slightly recessed, with roofs similar and parallel to the centre block. They contain the entrance halls with stair and one additional room each towards the garden. The side entrances have trellis porches and the trellis is carried round the front of both houses in a band supported by pilasters. The garden elevation is heightened by the ground being excavated from the basement storey and there is a balcony with verandah roof the entire width of the central block. (Plates 92, 93.)

Nos. 10 and 12, leased in 1824 to Francis Joshua, form a pair of simple Regency-type villas each with two rooms and staircase hall at the side, showing an elevation two storeys high to the road and three towards the garden. Hipped roofs, ornamental eaves and windows of the triple type having a wide centre sash flanked by two narrow ones are all of conventional form. The middle (ground) floor has bay windows looking west, giving on to balconies. The entrances in the recessed wings at the sides have porches of trellis. (Plates 93, 94.)

No. 14 stands by itself and the original portion is almost square in plan, with three rooms and a staircase hall on the ground floor. Its lowpitched slate roof contrasts curiously with its four-centred arched windows of double casements. The chimneys have square shafts set diamondwise. There is a severely plain porch to the road and a double verandah at the back to the lower (basement) and middle (ground) floors. (Plate 95.)

No. 16 is also a detached building. Its detail is entirely classical, but apart from the symmetrical placing of the three sash windows on each of the two floors of the front elevation, it is designedly irregular. The square centre block is divided into two rooms with a staircase hall in front of the southern one approached by a large enclosed porch which forms a low wing to the south. To the north is a two-storeyed wing with an additional room. Both wings are finished with a parapet carrying a couchant lion. The back elevation (of three storeys) has a bay window the full height with balcony to the middle floor. (Plate 95.)

Nos. 18 and 20, which were badly damaged in the air-raids, present a more consistent and serious attempt at the revival of Gothic. The combined building has two projecting wings, with steep gables furnished with parapets, apex finials and tall angle pinnacles. The windows are of Tudor type with hood mouldings and the chimneys are groups of octagonal shafts. Stringcourses of Gothic form mark the storeys and in front, between the wings, is a cloistered entrance with arches divided by buttress piers with high pinnacles. The garden elevation had bay windows and some battlemented features. Each house is flanked by a small coach-house.

Nos. 22 and 24, by contrast to the foregoing, show an elaborate classical design, the stucco being deeply channelled with horizontal joints to imitate masonry. A picturesque effect is cleverly contrived from an almost symmetrical plan by slightly recessing the left part of the front and centering the remainder on the window of the front rooms of No. 22, over which the deep eaves are sloped up in pedimental form. There is much play with slightly-recessed surfaces and the jointing is omitted here and there. The accidental effect is increased by the different treatment of the entrances. No. 22 is entered from a side porch, aided by dwarf balustraded terraces, while No. 24 has a front porch in its recessed façade. The back elevation is of equal interest. It is of three storeys, completely balanced in its parts. A large pediment spans the centre, which has a verandah and an elaborate roofed trellis balcony to the middle floor. The side windows in this storey have semicircular arches. (Plates 96, 97.)

Nos. 26 and 28 form a pair with a symmetrical front, all in classical detail. Two projecting wings enclose the staircases which turn on a semicircle internally. The staircase windows, which are large arched openings, are set within wider arches which, with the piers that form their imposts, fill the entire wings. Square balustraded projections stand in front of each window. The entrances are by side porches. Between the wings runs a verandah with pilaster supports of trellis, and the windows here are triple sashes. The garden front of three storeys has two bay windows to the two lower floors in a balanced design, but a large room in No. 28 projects south and west, with another bay window to the west. Both the bay windows of No. 28 are linked by a balcony with iron balustrading on the middle floor. At this level, covering the party wall, is a blank arch corresponding with an arched window opening in the wing of No. 26, which has a circular window in the top storey. (Plates 96, 98.)

No. 30, leased in 1824 to John Barrow, is a detached house with a simple square plan. The front of two storeys has three sash windows with wide architraves on the first floor and three arched openings below containing a central door and side windows. The back is also of two storeys and similarly treated, with the addition of a roofed verandah. A parapet with moulded cornice surrounds the house, within which is a steep hipped slate roof. (Plate 99.)

Nos. 32 and 34, assigned to Nash in 1824 and leased in 1837 (fn. n1) to Adam Duff, are a pair of undistinguished character. The central block has recessed wings each side and the plain slate roof runs from wing to wing, with pedimental gables over the projections east and west. The front has three and the back four storeys, the uppermost being lighted by two semicircular headed windows in the gables. The entrances are in the wings, and the garden front has a roofed balcony traversing the centre block on the main ground-floor level. (Plate 99.)

Inhabitants