39 Russell Road

Cadw's description

Location

Opposite the Church of Saint Thomas and between Nos 31-33 and Nos 43-47 Russell Road.

History

Group of 4 houses, probably built c1877, and designed as a symmetrical block.

Exterior

Render, originally rusticated to ground floor (lost in Nos 39-41), slate roofs with ridge cresting and end wall stacks, some now truncated. Two storeys with attics, 4 window range with advanced outer gables, and short side wings housing entrances to the 2 outer properties. Gables have 2-storeyed canted bay windows, with Palladian windows to ground floor, the impost band forming a continuous band across the facade. Windows in gable apex have deep moulding to upper section above the impost band. Central range has advanced lower storey, comprising porches to recessed entrances to either side, and rectangular bay windows. These have paired round-headed windows with heavily moulded heads, and cast-iron brattishing over cornice. Paired first floor windows have stilted arched moulded heads with low impost bands continuing across the facade. All the windows are 4-pane sashes. Modillion cornice across central section, scalloped bargeboards to gables. Gabled dormers in roof of central section, with paired sashes and bargeboards.

Reason for designation

An interesting design in which the individual properties are subordinated to the architectural composition of the terrace; the original decorative vocabulary used to enrich the facade survives almost intact, and the buildings form part of a group of villas typical of east Rhyl’s development in the 1870s.

Part of an important group of buildings around the Church of the Holy Trinity and the Church of Saint Thomas.