Details
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
