Farrago And Washhouse To Right

This is a house with a washhouse, built between 1908 and 1909 by David Reynard Robinson for his own use. It’s constructed with a bolted steel frame, brick walls with stone dressings, and mass-concrete floors, covered by a slate roof. The building’s distinguishing feature is the unrestrained and unconventional use of everyday building materials as decoration, both inside and out, with ornamental and pictorial brick and tile cladding. The house is three storeys high, with two bays, and includes a bathroom with a "gazebo" to the front, and a rear wing. A canted bay, under a separate gable, extends to the right. The main entrance is a three-panel door, set behind an open gabled timber porch on the ground floor of the first bay. The first floor has two-pane sashes with sills beneath shouldered lintels, featuring projecting vermiculated keyblocks. The second floor also has four-pane sashes with sills. The “gazebo” has a large rectangular window opening with a swept moulded coping, and the return cornice has a Lombard frieze. A four-pane sash in an architrave serves the bathroom. A Biblical scene decorates the gable above the canted bay.

Inside, the housekeeper's room on the ground floor is entirely clad in decorative tilework, including a rare graffito example. The ceiling showcases the exposed bolted-up frame and concrete infilling. The staircase to the first floor has marble treads and brown moulded and plain glazed brick risers, with a stairwell lined with decorative tiles, some of which are Spanish, arranged in panels. The octagonal drawing room on the first floor is panelled and decorated with a repeating stencilled motif on a painted ground, incorporating a reused late 18th century Adam-style fireplace. The landing has a tiled floor and dado, with large tiled wall panels and borders of plain tiles. The rear kitchen is similarly treated, featuring moulded brown-glazed tiles to the skirting, a decorative tiled dado, and large floral-designed Arts and Crafts tiles on the upper walls. The rear scullery and outside toilet are also lined with decorative and pictorial tiles, many with Dutch pictorial scenes, arranged in panels. The floor of this area uniquely uses broken and cut tiles to form a kaleidoscopic pattern. The winding staircase to the second floor features heavy turned newels with acorn finials, turned balusters, and a moulded handrail. The joinery and flooring throughout the house are of a high standard, including several four-panel doors within moulded doorcases.

The separate washhouse to the right mirrors the main house's character, with its interior clad in decorative and pictorial tiles in panel form.