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Overview
3
Visitors
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Phoebe
Merrick
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Look at Romsey
A town design statement for Romsey
Project Overview
Building Form
Terraced housing, Winchester Road
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Estate houses in Whitenap
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The predominant style of housing in Romsey is for small buildings, mostly of two storeys, although scattered across the town are some that are taller and others that have been extended upwards by means of gables.
Bungalows in Mercer Way
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Wykeham House, The Hundred
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There are a number of groups of bungalows built at various times from the 1920s onwards.
The larger buildings are notable for their larger footprint rather than for greater height. They are dispersed across the town although many of them are to be found in the historic town centre.
United Reform Church
seen from the Market Place
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The larger buildings include those with commercial use such as shops and community buildings. They include the town’s several churches, town hall, borough council offices, local hospital, schools, and meeting places. There are also larger buildings on the industrial estates. |
| The town has a number of buildings for multiple occupancy. There are some purpose-built blocks of flats and others in converted buildings. Those built in the 1960s were noted for their flat-roofs and plain rectangular shapes whilst the later blocks of flats mostly have more style. |
Flats, Broadwater Road
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Cedar Lawn Nursing Home
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In addition there are both nursing homes and sheltered accommodation which are variously in purpose-built accommodation such as Edwina Mountbatten House or in converted villas. |
Design Recommendations
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New buildings should be sympathetic to the scale of those surrounding them although there is scope for occasional well-designed landmark buildings |
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The roofs of new buildings should normally reflect the pitch and covering of those nearby unless bold architectural statement is appropriate in the context. |
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New buildings should be both well-built and attractively designed. |
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Building lines should enhance the street scene and preserve it. |
Materials and Fenestration
| The traditional building material in this area is red brick made from local clay, with hand made clay tiles on the roofs. Many of the older buildings in Romsey were constructed with timber frames which were hidden behind a rendered facade. A few of the grander houses have been built in yellow bricks. |
Brickwork on Tudor House, The Hundred
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Victorian roof in Viney Avenue
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From the mid-nineteenth century houses were often roofed in slate. Slates do not need as steep a pitch as clay tiles to throw off the water. Later houses have concrete tiles with various interlocking-type profiles. Thatch is rare in the town |
Increasingly the estates built around the town have used a variety of brick colours and finishes that are not native to this area. These include orange-hued bricks, pink bricks, flint panel insets and stippled bricks.
| From the mid-nineteenth century houses were often roofed in slate. Slates do not need as steep a pitch as clay tiles to throw off the water. Later houses have concrete tiles with various interlocking-type profiles. Thatch is rare in the town |
Romsey Police 1916.
The Police station is still in use.
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There is a variety of brickwork, from the delicate patterning on the southern end of the Post Office, to the elaborate decoration of the library designed by the architect Nesfield. Brick walls have used a variety of bonds and are often enhanced by the use of burnt bricks. A number of the older houses have string courses at the intersection between ground and first floor, and decorative courses are not uncommon just below the roof.
Tile hanging in Portersbridge Street
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Right across Romsey it is common to find upper storeys differently clad from ground floors. This often takes the form of tile-hanging, although slate or shiplap are common, the latter especially on the newer estates. |
The Victorian and post-Victorian terraces were originally constructed with sash windows, and have lost much of their cohesion as these and their doors have been replaced in a variety of ways.
Decorative details
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Decorative details
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Decorative details
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Most of the town is vernacular in style although influenced by the architectural fashions of the last two centuries. This variety helps to give the town its charm.
Design Recommendations
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Care should be exercised in choice of colour and materials for outside walls of buildings and should normally be expected to reflect that which was traditionally found in this area. |
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As opportunities arise, care should be taken to maintain and restore the unity of the late Victorian and Edwardian terraces in the town. |
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The little decorative features that adorn individual houses should be preserved. |
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Look at Romsey Overview 3 |
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