Summary
A late-C18 terraced town-house, with C17 or earlier origins.
Reasons for Designation
24 Effingham Street, a late-C18 terraced town-house, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is a good example of a late-C18 Georgian town house which has largely intact external architectural detailing and is little altered;
* it retains C17 or possibly earlier historic fabric, to the rear.
Group value:
* as part of the architectural and historic unity of late-C18 and early-C19 town-houses in Effingham Street.
History
In the C17 and possibly earlier, Effingham Street was known as Brick Street, and is recorded on a map of 1736. The street was redeveloped under the ownership of Lord Efffingham, and throughout the later C18 and C19, it was considered to be one of the most desirable residential areas in Ramsgate, and many of the finer houses from this period still survive. The M Collard and G Hurst map of Ramsgate dated 1822 shows a building on the footprint of Number 24. The rear of Number 24, and possibly the basement, are thought to have surviving walls from the C17, or earlier, and may extend south into the attached, 22 Effingham Street. The parapet of Number 24 has been rebuilt, and the ground-floor brickwork has been painted white.
Ramsgate is situated on the east coast of the Isle of Thanet, facing France and the Low Countries. Originating as a fishing village within the medieval parish of St Laurence, Ramsgate’s development from the C16 was driven by the strategic importance of its coastal port. Ramsgate became associated with the Cinque Ports as a limb of Sandwich from the C14. Late-C17 trade with Russia and the Baltic resulted in a wave of investment and rebuilding in the town. In 1749 the construction of a harbour of refuge from storms in the North Sea and Channel was approved, and a cross wall and inner basin were completed in 1779 to the design of John Smeaton. Later improvements included a lighthouse of 1794-1975 by Samuel Wyatt and a clock house of 1817 by Wyatt and George Louch.
From the mid-C18 Ramsgate became increasingly popular as a seaside resort, its expansion being accelerated by road improvements and faster sea passage offered by hoys, packets and steamers. An assembly room, warm water baths, subscription libraries and places of worship were joined by new streets such as Effingham Street and speculative crescents and squares on the East and West Cliffs such as Albion Place of around 1791-8 and Nelson Crescent of around 1800-1805. During the Napoleonic Wars Ramsgate became a busy garrison town and a major port of embarkation. Ramsgate’s importance in the 1820s is attested by its patronage by the British and European royal families and the creation of a separate parish by Act of Parliament, served by the large Church of St George (1824-1827). The harbour is the only one in the British Isles which has the designation ‘Royal’, granted by George IV.
The arrival of the South Eastern Railway’s branch line in 1846 opened up Ramsgate to mass tourism and popular culture, bringing a range of inexpensive, lively resort facilities intended for the sorts of middle- and working-class holidaymakers depicted in W P Frith’s painting ‘Ramsgate Sands’ of 1854 (Royal Collection). Wealthier visitors were accommodated at a respectable distance from the town in developments such as E W Pugin’s Granville Hotel of 1867-1869. Competition with other Kentish resorts stimulated a series of large-scale improvements in the late C19 and early C20 including the construction of Royal Parade and landscaped stairs and pathways at the eastern and western ends of the seafront to join the upper promenades to the Undercliff walks. New schools, hospitals and services were also built. The thriving town attracted diverse faith communities; Moses Montefiore founded a synagogue and a religious college at East Cliff Lodge, while A W N Pugin St Augustine’s Church and the Grange as part of an intended Catholic community on the West Cliff.
In 1940 the harbour was the point of return for many of the small boats involved in the evacuation from Dunkirk and war-time precautions included the digging of extensive air raid shelter tunnels in the chalk beneath the town. Ramsgate remained a popular holiday destination until the advent of cheap foreign travel in the post-war decades. Falling visitor numbers were exacerbated by the decline of the town’s small trades and industries, fishing and boat-building. However, a ferry and hovercraft port and the large marina created in the inner harbour in the 1970s have continued to bring life to the area.
Details
A late-C18 terraced town-house, with C17 or earlier origins.
MATERIALS and PLAN: mixed-stock brick in Flemish bond and a slate-tiled roof. There are three storeys and a basement, with an internal chimney stack to left of centre. The house is set back behind the adjoining Number 26, and projects in front of the adjoining Number 22.
EXTERIOR: the road front, facing east, is three-bay, largely symmetrical, and Georgian in style. The brickwork to the ground-floor is painted white. The front entrance is to the north-side. It has a moulded door case with frieze, cornice and pilasters with fluted capitals. The timber door has six, raised and fielded panels, the middle two of which are glazed. It is recessed within the door case which has moulded panels to either side, and a round-headed fanlight above. The door case also has a fitted, brass bell-pull. There are two sash windows to the ground floor, and three on the first and second storeys. The windows are recessed and formed of four-over-three panes, under flat, red-brick gauged arches. The rear walls of the building incorporate the remains of a C17 (or earlier) building. They are constructed of flint and brick, and have an arched window opening.
INTERIOR: there are framed partitions, and the drawing room has arched recesses, which flank a C20 fireplace. The staircase has turned principal balusters, and a dado rail. The basement ceiling has a chamfered beam, which may have been reused, or survive from an earlier building phase.
