34 Alexandra Drive

Villa dating from the 1860s, significantly extended and altered in the 1880s and 1890s for Richard Robertson Lockett. The interior decorative scheme was executed by S J Waring & Sons. The building later served as a residential college and nursing home, with further alterations made in the mid-20th century.

The villa is constructed of cream and brown brick with pressed-brick, pink-sandstone and painted-stone dressings under a slate roof. Yellow brick was used for mid- to late-20th-century elements and rebuilt sections.

Setting and Plan

34 Alexandra Drive occupies a substantial plot extending south-west down to Aigburth Road, bounded to the north-west and south-east by neighbouring properties. The building has an irregular plan with its principal front elevation facing north-east onto Alexandra Drive.

Exterior

The villa is a large structure, mainly of two storeys with basement and attic. The sloping ground level results in a full basement at the rear and basement wells at the front. The ground-floor windows retain their late-19th-century sashes, leaded glazing and casements (some with smashed glazing), but the upper floors have replacement uPVC glazing. Cast-iron rainwater goods survive with some decorative hoppers.

Front (North-East) Elevation

The principal seven-bay front elevation demonstrates the building's evolution through the 19th and 20th centuries. To the right is a wide twin-gabled two-bay section in cream brick with shaped bargeboards to the attic gables, forming the original 1860s part of the building. This section has ornamented late-19th-century canted and box bay windows of painted stone to the ground floor (as of December 2021, all front ground-floor windows were covered externally by metal sheeting but remained visible internally), lighting a drawing room, and paired windows to the upper floors. The first-floor windows are set beneath shared relieving arches incorporating pink-sandstone voussoirs.

The main entrance is located in the centre bay, a late-19th-century addition set back and rising above the roofline as a tower with an additional storey. The entrance itself consists of a large ornamented flat-roofed painted-stone porch with a wide basket-arched doorway with integral fanlight, flanked by engaged octagonal columns with elaborate capitals and topped by a parapet with decorated panels. Recessed within the porch is a large four-panel door (boarded over externally) with glazed upper lights (glazing broken) and quatrefoil lower panels. The first and second floors behind and above the porch are in a darker cream brick, whilst the top floor of the tower has been rebuilt in dark yellow brick. Each floor has a single window, with that to the top floor incorporating a Gothic head with pink-sandstone and cream-brick voussoirs.

To the left of the entrance bay are three bays added in the late 19th century with a large two-light painted-stone bay window to the ground floor, topped by a parapet with ball finials and flanked by tall windows with painted Gibbs-style surrounds and segmental-arched heads, all lighting a former billiards room. The first floor has two sets of paired windows. The second floor appears to be a mid-20th-century addition in dark yellow brick with four small windows. Set back to the far right of the elevation is a four-storey flat-roofed mid-20th-century bay, also in dark yellow brick with a doorway to the ground floor and single windows above. A painted-sandstone band runs across the entire elevation between the ground and first floors.

Rear (South-West) Elevation

The wide six-bay rear elevation faces south-west over the house's former gardens and is constructed of brown brick with pink-sandstone dressings forming window surrounds, sills, lintels and stringcourses. It is composed of a series of projecting late-19th-century polygonal bays of varying size that increase in width from right to left and rise from a full basement with single and paired windows and a series of doorways.

Set to the right of centre is a flat-roofed glazed-timber winter-garden structure with a brick base partially carried over a basement entrance on slender cast-iron columns. The glazing has been removed, but the frames survive with taller lights set below upper lights with shaped heads. A doorway on its south-east return is accessed by a flight of brick and stone steps from the garden. The ground-floor windows to the neighbouring polygonal bays all have mullioned and transomed lights with leaded and stained glass (some damaged); two of the lights on the widest polygonal bay to the left have been converted into a doorway serving a metal fire escape stair (a further fire escape exists to the south-east side elevation). The upper-floor windows include single-light, mullioned, and mullioned and transomed windows. The polygonal bays have flat roofs topped by parapets, with some gables rising above and behind. Changes in brickwork at the south-east end of the elevation denote a later attic extension constructed in similar style. The multi-pitched roof, largely hidden from view due to the building's height, retains three substantial chimneybreasts and a large rooflight lighting the main stair.

Interior

Internally there are mainly parquet floors to the ground floor and floorboards to the upper floors (some hidden under later coverings), along with deep skirtings and moulded cornicing throughout. Ornately panelled doors survive on the ground floor, but some of the plainer panelled doors on the upper floors have been replaced with fire doors. The ground-floor spaces, which retain much of the late-19th-century S J Waring & Sons interior decoration, have richly detailed mahogany woodwork and very high ceilings that decrease in height through the upper storeys.

Entrance/Stair Hall

The entrance vestibule has a decorative patterned mosaic floor and a half-height dado with decorative geometric panelling topped by a modillion cornice. An elaborate tripartite doorcase containing a partly-glazed panelled round-headed door with flanking glazed sidelights (all with broken glazing) leads into an L-shaped entrance/stair hall, which continues the same dado panelling. The hall has a canted north-east corner where the dado incorporates a carved fireplace, simplified from historic photographs through the removal of a low mirrored overmantle and carved reliefs on the jambs. The hall's late-19th-century Jacobean-style relief-strapwork ceiling has been replaced with a plaster ceiling with lighter strapwork decoration. Encased ceiling support beams are heavily decorated and supported by brackets incorporating carved heads of a horned Bacchus.

The entrance/stair hall was originally larger but has since been divided by a mid- to late-20th-century partition screen inserted underneath one of the ceiling beams and a small modern lift. The rear section, which has modern tile floor coverings, provides access into the former sitting room, dining room and winter garden. The main stair and access into the mid-20th-century extension are located at the north-west end of the hall, whilst at the south-east end is a tall round-arched doorway leading into the late-19th-century extension and a hallway corridor accessing a former billiards room and Lockett's study. A former drawing room is located off the north corner of the hall at the front of the building.

Dining Room

The entrance to the former dining room is formed of an elaborate full-height classical doorcase integral with the entrance/stair hall's panelled dado, incorporating fluted Ionic antae supporting an entablature and a round-headed opening containing geometric-panelled double doors with relief decoration. Built-in multi-storey display cabinets with traceried glazed doors and velvet linings are set into the doorway jambs. The dining room is a large space with a deeply coved Jacobean-style pendant and strapwork-plaster ceiling, and panelled walls topped by a decorated entablature. The panelled walls incorporate a hidden doorway in the north-east wall that would have been for servants' use. The room's floor is hidden by later tile coverings. To the north-west wall is a painted fireplace with a Tudor-arched opening adorned with a coat of arms. In a historic photograph taken by Bedford Lemere & Co in 1896, the coat of arms bears the Lockett family's stag heads emblem in relief, but these have since been removed and replaced with the painted initials 'ASCH'. Paired pilasters flanking the fireplace have also been simplified from their original design into fluted pilasters and figurative carvings removed from the overmantle, possibly in the early 20th century.

Sitting Room and Winter Garden

The former sitting room, which overlooks the rear grounds, has a timber fire surround to the north-west wall with paired columns. Modern tile coverings have been laid on top of the original floor, which has partially collapsed (as of December 2021) due to fire damage. The room is also accessed off the rear section of the partitioned entrance/stair hall through a large opening supported by fluted Ionic antae. A narrower opening in the same style lies adjacent and leads into the former winter garden, which has been modernised and has a partially collapsed inserted suspended ceiling and a modern floor covering.

Drawing Room

An elaborate doorcase at the north corner of the entrance/stair hall in similar style to that of the dining room, but without display cabinets to the jambs, leads into the former drawing room, a double-width room with a wide arched opening separating the two halves. It has elaborate Rococo-style decoration and plasterwork to the walls and ceiling, and the parquet floor remains uncovered. Identical timber and marble fireplaces are arranged at each end of the room with mirror overmantles; the mirror to the south-east end has been broken.

Billiards Room

The south-east corridor branching off the entrance/stair hall has a parquet floor, low panelled dado, and doorways off to each side. That to the north-east side of the corridor is wider with geometric-patterned panelled double doors leading into the former billiards room, latterly used as a bar/social room with an inserted late-20th-century bar counter and two seating platforms. The room has panelled walls, a strapwork plaster ceiling, and a built-in cue cupboard with panelled decoration incorporating depictions of the green man and Richard Lockett's initials 'RL' to the internal face of the left door, and the date '1890' to the right door. The room's late-19th-century sash windows are visible and retain their leaded glazing. It has been suggested that an inglenook fireplace depicted in a historic photograph at the north-west end of the room possibly survives behind a stud wall, but this is unconfirmed.

Study

On the south-west side of the south-east corridor are two further doorways with geometric-panelled doors. That nearest the entrance hall leads into Richard Lockett's study, which has a Jacobean-style plaster ceiling, deep moulded cornice, and panelling to the underside of its bay window. The room contains a suite of built-in furniture, including cupboards, shelving, a drop-front desk, and an integral fireplace. The fireplace has a marble insert, tiled cheeks with embossed relief detail depicting Persian scenes, and built-in display shelves and cabinets to the jambs; the fireplace's overmantle depicted in a historic photograph has been removed. The desk, built into the same unit as the fireplace, has a decorative panelled front and fluted consoles, and retains its letter shelves, compartments and leather writing pad. The built-in unit along the south-east wall retains its drawers, shelving and mixture of glazed and geometric-panelled cupboard doors, but has lost an upper display cabinet that sat on top.

Adjacent to the study are gentlemen's toilets that would have served the billiards room and Lockett's study. Original late-19th-century glazed-tile dados and quarry and monochrome-tiled flooring survive, along with original panelled doors to the stalls.

Main Stair

The main stair, top lit by a large coffered skylight with Art Nouveau leaded glazing, is executed in two different styles. A Jacobean-style balustrade rises from the ground floor on the lower flight, whilst the upper flights have a more classical appearance with a panelled closed string; the turned balusters have been removed from the upper flights, although some lie scattered (as of December 2021) in the hallway. The half-landings are lit by large windows (a large 12-light window to the first half-landing and a sash window with leaded and stained-glass margin lights to the second half-landing). The second half-landing has a servant's cupboard off to one side with a ceramic sink and shelving. On the top landing is a mid-20th-century partition wall with an internal two-light window inserted for fire-safety reasons.

Upper Floors

The upper floors are plainer and have generally been modernised, with rooms at the front of the building subdivided to create smaller bedrooms. The larger rooms at the south-west rear retain their late-19th-century configuration. Moulded door architraves survive, along with plain and decorative moulded cornicing and picture rails, but built-in bedroom furniture by S J Waring & Sons depicted in two historic photographs has been removed.