The Convent

Details

HARWICH

TM2531 ORWELL ROAD, Dovercourt 609-1/7/198 (North East side) 20/06/72 Nos.1-13 (Consecutive) and The Convent

GV II

Formerly known as: Banksea House Dovercourt. Terrace of marine residences now mostly flats with attached railings. 1851 to late 1850s. Brick with Roman cement render and Welsh slate Mansard roof over main range, flat roofs over end blocks. PLAN: main range (Nos 1-12) of 3 storeys with attics and basements and NW and SE blocks of 4 storeys with basements. EXTERIOR: the main range consists of 12 houses in handed pairs. The centre of each pair breaks forward slightly forming a regular series of recesses and projections. Each projecting part has 2 segmental-roofed dormers now with mixture of windows, the originals being double-hung sashes with margin glazing and single vertical glazing bar, the upper sash curved. Each party wall is taken above the mansard with long party wall stacks. Plain parapet now pierced with mixture of semicircular and rectangular cut-outs to dormers. Prominent cornice on brackets and pulvinated frieze. Second floor has 2 narrow unsubdivided double-hung sash windows with plaster moulded surrounds. First floor has 2 similar deeper windows with semicircular-headed moulded surround and set in slight recess. Ground floor, as elsewhere in complete complex, has Doric pilasters, entablature and cornice forming base. This treatment is carried round paired, projecting flat-roofed porches each with a semicircular arch-headed window in its flanks. Iron bootscraper beside each front door. Front doors of Nos 1, 2 & 5-9 have 2 vertical panels, Nos 3 & 4 have 6 raised-and-fielded panels. Others are C20. Elevation of recessed part has 2 similar dormers. Second floor has 2 square double-hung sash windows with margin glazing, central vertical glazing bars and moulded plaster frames. First floor has 2 aedicule pedimented windows with eared, upward-tapering architraves. These have margin glazing and central horizontal glazing bar to each sash. These reach to floor level and each has a projecting balcony on brackets with X-pattern iron railings between rectangular corner piers (formerly with ball finials). Ground floor has tripartite arrangement of central and 2 narrow double-hung sash windows with margin glazing set between pilasters. Similar arrangement to basement but with small panes. Wing walls project between each unit within recessions with pier and wrought-iron railings linking with porches and enclosing basement area. These have adorned 'halberds' as main supports with scroll backstays and minor bars have pronounced spearheads. Stone-paved terrace with granite curbing, fronts Nos 1-12 with remnants of iron railings at northern end. Each unit has stone step from road level and iron coal-shute cover to cellar beneath. The 2 larger end units are taken up to 4 storeys with flat-leaded roofs behind parapets. The pilaster base treatment is carried through and each block has banded giant pilaster and quoin treatment to corners. The south-west facade of The Convent has similar cornice carried through below 4th floor and this is broken and arched over a window of 3rd floor where facade breaks forward slightly. Third floor has 2 square double-hung sash windows with 2 vertical glazing bars and one narrow double-hung sash, all with plaster frames. The second floor has one narrow and 2 wide double-hung sashes with pilasters and straight entablature and floor level sills on consoles enclosing apron panels. First floor has one narrow double-hung sash and 2 with semicircular-headed pediments. Single projecting porch on ground floor. The seaward elevation of The Convent employs similar motifs but with more variety and windows of 2nd and 3rd floors are linked. One half of this facade projects with banded pilasters/quoins and with projecting pilastered canted bay with pilasters and balustrade. The SW elevation of No.13 employs similar motifs with the centre of 3 window range breaking forward slightly and with projecting similar porch and separate terrace/steps. The NE elevation, overlooking Cliff Park is treated as an unbroken range but with The Convent and No.13 breaking forward and surmounted by pediments. General arrangement of facades is similar to SE but with continuous stone balcony at 1st-floor level, supported on pierced brackets and breaking forward at end pavilions. This has simple iron handrail (By Coopers of Ipswich). First-floor windows have aedicules with pediments as elsewhere. Ground floor treatment has large frame French windows between pilasters. INTERIORS of Nos 7 & 8 (still single houses) remain substantially intact. Narrow but elegant well staircases with winder corners, continuous curved soffits, continuous hardwood handrails and alternating iron balustrade of oval loops with anthemion motif and foliate sticks. Variety of richly applied cornices of neo-classical patterns including guilloche and egg-and-dart, varied from room to room and unit to unit. Plaster ceiling roses, plaster skirtings and contemporary panelled doors and moulded architraves. Cornice to porch of No.8 has standing leaves. Standard pattern marble fireplaces with shelf on consoles, white on first floor and black to main ground floor room. The interior of The Convent is similar but on a larger scale with staircase bridging over a lower flight to reach 3rd floor. This house has semicircular arches within entrance lobby and on first-floor landing with free-standing lintel with rounded decorations. Attics have soft water cisterns to collect water from roofs. Rear gardens are Bagshaw MP, the only completed part of Dovercourt New Town. This monumental project was designed by WH Lindsey, a London architect. Bagshaw was declared bankrupt in 1859 and the necessary land was broken up. The project as built was loosely based on that part of Lindsey's scheme, but the name of a Dovercourt architect, Horace Darken, appears on sale documents.

Listing NGR: TM2580631624

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

366612

Legacy System:

LBS

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