Summary
A pair of houses dating from the early C19, with later extension.
Reasons for Designation
22-24 Brixton Road, a pair of early-C19 houses, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* The building dates from the early C19 and retains a significant proportion of its historic fabric;
* The principal façade is characteristic of a pair of houses of the late-Georgian period, and the enlargement of No.22 continues the rhythm and proportions and illustrates the historic development of the house;
* The historic plan survives internally, as do various historic mouldings and joinery.
Historic interest:
* The provenance of the building is recorded, and provides evidence of small-scale early-C19 property development.
History
The Survey of London states that a lease for the land on which Nos.22-24 Brixton Road stands was granted to William Broadhurst in 1802. The Lambeth parish map of 1824 has indicative markings for buildings, and the rate books for the terrace record tenancy in 1829-1830, though not for the specific buildings. Hence, an early C19 date for the building can be assumed. Broadhurst is known to have built the nearby house, No.5 Prima Road, under a lease granted in 1801, and so Nos.22-24 Brixton Road may date from around the same time.
The address of the houses was initially 6-7 Spencer Place, and then became 22-24 Brixton Road, prior to renumbering in 1894 resulting in the current address.
It appears that the building was originally a pair of semi-detached houses of two bays, with set back side entrances. No.22 was extended to the north, creating a four-bay elevation; the 1842 parish map shows the building with a wider footprint than its neighbour, and so we can assume the extension had been made by this date. A deep, single-storey octagonal bay has been added to the ground floor. On No.24, the side entrance bay appears to have been extended forwards to meet the building line, and an additional storey has been created in a mansard extension to the roof. The date of the latter is unknown, though it is shown on a photograph dating from 1946. The buildings are recorded as having suffered general blast damage from bombing during the Second World War. Modern alterations include the replacement of the windows in No.22, and some subdivision internally. The rear of No.22 appears to incorporate modern brickwork.
Details
A pair of houses dating from the early C19, with later extensions.
MATERIALS: constructed from brown stock brick with slate roofs and brick chimneystacks.
PLAN: the two houses stand set back from the west side of Brixton Road. They are rectangular on plan, with extensions projecting to the rear. Both are three storeys plus basements, and No.24 has an attic extension.
EXTERIOR: No.22 is four bays wide and three storeys high. The two left-hand bays reflect the original arrangement: each floor has two segmental window openings, tallest on the piano nobile, where there are iron balustrades, and shortest on the second floor. The two right-hand bays are a slightly later extension; the front doorway is to the left, within a round-headed opening with a stucco architrave. To the right is a single-storey, deeply-projecting canted bay with a flat roof. The first floor has a single window, and the second floor has a pair, mimicking the arrangement of the left-hand bays. The front door and all of the windows are modern. There is a parapet concealing a butterfly roof.
No.24 is two bays wide and three storeys high with a mansard attic, and has a third, outer bay containing the entrance and stair. The two main bays, as on No.22, have a segmental window to each bay of each storey, and retain six-over-six light sash windows. The outer entrance bay is two storeys at the front, rising at the rear where it contains the stair which rises to the second floor. The front door is modern, and has a plain fanlight beneath a brick arch. The mansard attic is recessed behind the parapet; it has a central dormer and the roof has a hip on the left, and meets the tall central stack on the right.
At the rear of the building the original form is clear: the two main ranges of the building, with their distinctive butterfly roof profiles, each stand flanked by their stair tower with monopitched roof; on No.22, there is an additional bay built onto the north of the tower. Various single-storey extensions project from the ground floor. The floors above have a single window each; those on No.24 retain their sashes. No.24 is rendered, and No.22 incorporates modern brickwork.
INTERIOR: the two houses were originally laid out with two principal rooms to each floor, with the stair and through-corridor in the outer bay. No.22 has an additional bay beyond the stair, containing small additional rooms, and a rear monopitched extension to the kitchen. There is a collection of six-panel doors, and many rooms retain moulded door and window architraves, cornices, pictures rails and skirtings. In No.24 the original plan is legible, though is interrupted on the second floor by the addition of a stair to the attic. No.24 has various door and window architraves, though mouldings and joinery survive less well than in No.22. There is a small panelled under-stair room to the rear of the ground floor, now containing a WC.
The stairs in both houses are straight and wind 180° at the top, passing in front of a long narrow window at the rear of each tower; they have moulded timber newels and spindle and stick balusters, replaced in sections.
Both houses have basements with coal chutes.
