The town grew as a Regency spa, and its signature stock (painted stucco over solid masonry in Montpellier, Lansdown, Pittville and The Suffolks) is beautiful at concealing water. Render holds moisture out of sight until it blisters or stains, by which time a slow leak may have been running for months, and many of these buildings still carry veteran lead and iron pipework threaded through basements and floor voids. Subdivision into flats and offices has added layer upon layer of newer supplies, few of them documented anywhere.
Beyond the conservation core, St Paul's and St Peter's offer Victorian terraces (many now student lets for the University of Gloucestershire, with bathrooms under heavy rotation), while Hatherley, Warden Hill and Up Hatherley bring twentieth-century estates whose heating loops sit in solid floors. The absorbed villages of Charlton Kings, Leckhampton and Prestbury round things off with older cottages on long private supply runs where an underground leak shows only on the bill.