The Polygons, including terraces, encircling path, reflecting pool and eastern boundary wall

The Polygons is a grade II listed building comprising a house with integral terraces, encircling path, reflecting pool and eastern boundary wall, set above and parallel to Sow Brook on the eastern side.

The house is composed of a series of inter-linked polygonal shapes arranged north-west to south-east. It is approached by a short curving drive descending to the main entrance and garage, which are set at a lower ground level than Dane Bank Road. The plan centres on an octagonal lounge, with a service wing projecting to the southern side and a bedroom wing to the northern side.

The house is constructed of load-bearing brickwork and blockwork with reinforced-concrete raft foundations. Self-preserving materials including anodised aluminium and waterproof ply have been used. Black pointing with a square rebate highlights the brickwork. Running around the entire building is a very deep, black-stained Bootle Norman plywood beam fascia that jetties outwards at numerous points, including over the paved terraces, to form shade-providing canopies with cedar panelling, lights and ventilators to the undersides. The large windows comprise timber fixed-pane windows and anodised aluminium sliding-sash windows set within timber frames; these are not load-bearing. Each window has a sill formed of cant-faced soldier bricks shaped at a 15-degree angle to allow rainwater run-off. These bricks are also used to form a course at the top of the building supporting the fascia, with a plain soldier course running across each elevation at sill level. Many windows and the lounge's patio doors wrap around the house's angled corners.

The main entrance is set to the south-eastern end and incorporates a slender canopy projecting forwards at a right angle to wrap around a sycamore tree. The entrance canopy has a fascia in the same style as the main house, though not as deep, and a slightly-raised walkway underneath with frost-proof tiles. The entrance itself is recessed with commercial-type glazed double doors. To the left is the garage, fitted with a vertical-opening, rolling and folding Filuma garage door from the United States; it is also accessible internally from the house. The house's roof overhangs the garage and main entrance to provide covered access.

Internally the house is little altered and contains v-grooved cedar panelled ceilings and bare, textured Ibstock Bretton Brown Rustic brick walls, which incorporate two soldier courses as in the exterior. Under-floor and ceiling heating is present. Teak doors and Gibbons handles are set within simple machined-timber architraves. Some furniture was designed by Gough himself.

The frost-proof tiles of the entrance walkway continue into the entrance hall, which runs down into the kitchen. The hall is lit by a square light well with a glazed pyramidal roof; two further examples in the same style are found in the lounge and the rear hall in the bedroom wing.

Off the northern side of the hall is Granville Gough's office, designed as a working office where he would meet clients and tradesmen. It has utilitarian flooring designed for workmen's boots, a cork display wall, sliding plan drawers and built-in shelving. Opposite the office across the hallway is a toilet with the entrance hall's tiled floor, suitable for work visitors. The original sanitary ware and tiling survive, incorporating two bands of narrow, vertical tiles that mirror the soldier courses of the brickwork and are replicated in the house's two other bathrooms.

The pentagonal kitchen contains cherrywood units designed by Gough with serving hatches through to the neighbouring dining room and out onto the western terrace for use at parties. The dining room retains its original shagpile carpet, which continues into the lounge and bedroom wing, and backlit Roset display units designed by Gough with a module configuration enabling elements to be added or subtracted as required. The walls are plastered except for the dividing wall with the kitchen. The dining room flows into the large octagonal lounge at the centre of the house, which is fully glazed on each west and east side with sliding patio doors opening onto the terraces. Two original light fittings survive; two later replacements replaced Noguchi shades.

The bedroom wing lies off the northern side of the lounge and has a central, angled corridor with bedrooms and bathrooms off to each side and the northern end. The bedrooms have plastered walls and ceilings with original built-in furniture including mirrored wardrobes and light fittings. The master bedroom suite has a small lobby area, bedroom and bathroom; both this bathroom and another within the bedroom wing retain their original sanitary ware and tiling. Two of the guest bedrooms are separated by a sliding partition wall constructed of plastic-laminated fibreboard cladding over a timber frame filled with polystyrene, allowing it to be retracted to create a single large bedroom. One bedroom is now used as a library/study and has a later parquet-effect vinyl floor and shelving but retains its original mirrored wardrobes.

The house retains its original grounds. Set to the west is a rectangular reflecting pool aligned east-west and edged in sandstone. A York-stone path wraps around the house and incorporates terraces on each western and eastern side. The eastern path and terrace are bounded by a low brown-brick wall that follows an irregular alignment above Sow Brook and includes further lower sections of walling set in front of the wall's angles, creating raised planting areas.