Description

1900/0/10327 RANSTON STREET
08-OCT-03 Lisson Grove
21-26, 27-31, 32-37

GV II
21-26, 27-31, 32-37 (Consecutive) RANSTON STREET, LISSON GROVE, WESTMINSTER

Model cottages. c.1895. Elijah Hoole for Octavia Hill, and still owned by the Octavia Housing Trust. Red brick, mostly rendered to first floor with hung clay tiles between floors, wooden sashes and plank doors. Tiled pitched and gabled roofs. Brick chimneys to valleys.
EXTERIORS:
Nos.32-37. Named 'Almond Cottages' on a plaque, with illegible date but the first built, according to map evidence. Range of 6 cottages each with gable to Ranston street, group of 3 tall sash windows to first floor, tile-hung mid section, similar window at ground floor off-set by side plank door and overlight. Brick party wall between gables and brick chimneys behind.
Nos. 31-27. Named 'Hawthorne Cottages'. Range of 5 cottages each with gable to Ranston Street, with those to end and central gables treated as a dormer with group of 3 square lights, others with single central light. Group of 3 short sashes at first floor, group of 3 tall sashes to ground floor off-set by side plank door and overlight. Brick party wall between gables and brick chimneys behind.
Nos. 21-26. Range of 6 cottages different to the others. 5-part facade to Ranston Street, advanced to end and central bays. Central section with pedimented and rendered gable with pair of 12-light sashes above similar, that to left grouped with 8-pane sash. Connecting wings each have 2 entrances flanked by 6-pane lights and pair of 12-pane sashes, below 12-pane sash and pair of 12-pane sashes to first floor. End bays with tripartite window to first floor with 8/12/8 pane sashes, above pair of 12-panes sashes with outside doors under paned overlight. All ground floor openings under gauged red brick lintels.
INTERIORS: Not inspected.
SUBSIDIARY: Nos. 31-27 and Nos.21-26 retain their individual small front yards with iron railings. Ranston Street is paved with granite sets and lined with large cut granite curb.
HISTORY: These houses replaced the notorious 'Marylebone fever dens' that lined what was known as Charles Street until renamed, perhaps by Octavia Hill, in the late-1890s. Eliza Armstrong, a 13-year old daughter of a chimney sweep who lived with her family at No.32 Charles Street was the subject of the 1885 sensational trial when she was allegedly bought by the journalist W.T. Stead. The houses that replaced these were in the picturesque style favoured by Octavia Hill and favourite architect Elijah Hoole. A plaque between Nos. 29 and 30 identifies the cottages as being built in 1895 by Octavia Hill.

Group value with Nos. 5-11 on the east side of Ranston Street.

Listed as complete examples of attractive late-C19 model cottages that were built for the nationally important housing reformer, Octavia Hill (1838-1915) and designed by Elijah Hoole.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670017

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6