Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
26321
Building Number
4
Grade
II*
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
19/03/1951
Date of Amendment
04/07/2024
Name of Property
No 4 Lexden Terrace
Address
4 St Julian's Street
Location
Unitary Authority
Pembrokeshire
Community
Tenby
Town
Tenby
Locality
Easting
213656
Northing
200400
Street Side
E
Location
Lexden Terrace lies at a tangent to the E side of St Julian's Street, the rear overlooking Castle Sands, all set back behind a forecourt wall.
Description
Broad Class
Domestic
Period
History
Lexden Terrace is the finest of the Tenby terraces. Nos 1-5 were built in 1843 to 1845; No 6, Lexden House, is slightly later, but complete by 1850.
Nos 1-5 were built for John Rees (1801-1855), a ship's captain of Tenby who made the first accurate charts of the Chinese coast, which were used in the First Opium War. Rees made his fortune smuggling opium along the Chinese coast, investing the money in property in Pembrokeshire.
The builder was John Smith of Tenby, from a long line of Tenby craftsmen. An 1845 article in the Bristol Mercury cites Samuel Burleigh Gabriel as architect. Gabriel lived in Clifton, Bristol where Rees had leased a house and there is evidence they knew each other. Nos 1-5 cost £3,174 to build.
Rees had married Emma Brown in 1842, and they lived at No 1, letting Nos 2-5 on long leases. After Rees' death in 1855 the house continued to be occupied by his widow and daughter until 1862. The daughter married in 1862 and as Emma Knox Maitland became known as a prominent educational reformer. She sold Nos 1-5 in 1922 as individual houses.
No 4 was occupied in 1926 by a Mrs Martin.
Exterior
The fourth house of a stuccoed terrace of 6 houses. Each house of 3 storeys and basement, 2 bays, flanked by giant Ionic pilasters on upper 2 floors, rising from band over ground floor. Extra pilaster between Nos 5 and 6. Full entablature with moulded cornice and parapet, slate roofs and brick chimneys. Twelve-pane sashes to upper floors, ground floor openings not aligned, with door to left and tripartite sash to right with unusual glazing pattern of marginal panes around an elongated octagon.
Flight of steps to entrance flanked by wrought-iron railings with uprights of scroll design to each doorway. Stuccoed shouldered doorcases with cornices, doors of 2 long panels and overlights with tracery similar to ground floor window.
Rear elevation is painted stucco with parapet and continuous first floor balcony with decorative cast-iron railings, pierced open-work uprights and lead tent awning.
Interior
Said to have good interior with cantilevered stairs rising around elliptical well, top lit by glazed dome. Panelled doors, windows shutters etc.
Reason for designation
Graded II* for special architectural interest as part of the finest terrace in Tenby.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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