Details
ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA
SP3166SE KENILWORTH STREET
1208-1/2/199 (West side)
18/08/80 No.12
(Formerly Listed as:
KENILWORTH STREET
(West side)
Nos.12 AND 14
Royal British Legion (14))
GV II
A house, dating from c.1840, with some later alterations.
MATERIALS: The house is constructed from pinkish-brown brick, laid in Flemish bond, under a roof of cement tiles; the stack and the northern and western elevations are rendered in cement render.
PLAN: The house is of double depth plan, with a further wing to the rear providing service rooms.
EXTERIOR: The house is of two storeys, with two first floor windows. All the windows are C20 replacements, set in plain reveals, with sills and flat channelled arches; that to the ground floor has a raised keystone. The entrance is to the left, with two steps up to the C20 board door, which has a plain, rectangular overlight, all set in a pilastered timber surround, which has a frieze and hood. The tall, rendered gable end stack has a cornice. The roof is an apex roof, with a pitched roof to the rear wing.
INTERIOR: To the ground floor, the entrance hall houses the stair, and has an arched opening to the rear, beyond which is the kitchen, in the rear wing. The dog-leg stair has turned newel posts and plain stick balusters. There are two principal ground floor rooms, under which is a brick cellar with a former hearth. To the first floor, the bathroom is in the rear wing off a half-landing, and there are three further rooms. The majority of the doors are original, each having four panels. Some skirtings remain in situ, as do the majority of the fluted door casings; all fire surrounds have been removed, but chimney breasts survive in all the principal rooms.
HISTORY: Kenilworth Street was laid out, along with the adjacent streets, on a planned grid pattern, c.1822-6 by John Kempson, who was also working in Birmingham at this period. The building was constructed c.1840. The Ordnance Survey map series for this area covers the period 1889 to 1939, and this shows that there was a small building attached to the house on its north side, and that there were further extensions to the rear of the plot, apparently outbuildings. These remained in situ with only minor changes to their footprints until the adjacent Irwin Memorial Hall was extended in the mid C20, at which point they appear to have been removed to allow this expansion. The building attached to the north side of the house may have been removed at the same time. Trade directories show that in 1914, 12 Kenilworth Street was the premises of a Mr A R Horswill, who is listed as both a coal merchant and furniture remover; this indicates that the house was his residence, and the outbuildings to the rear were used for commercial interests, in common with much of the rest of Kenilworth Street, where a diverse range of commercial and light industrial businesses are listed in the late C19 and early C20.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: 12 Kenilworth Street is a good example of a smaller townhouse associated with commercial and industrial use, dating from the period immediately before 1840. It has a modestly scaled, classically inspired façade with some good details, including its pilastered timber door surround and overlight, and the window openings, which have channelled flat arches and a keystone. Despite some later C20 changes, the building remains largely intact; its plan form and much of its interior remain unaltered, with the original stair, and most of the internal joinery intact. The house is situated on Kenilworth Street, a planned street laid out as part of the expansion of Royal Leamington Spa in the years just prior to the construction of the house and the adjacent Irwin Memorial Hall, with which it has good group value.
Bibliography
Royal Leamington Spa: Its History and Development (L F Cave), 1988, Page(s) 39
