Eastfield Including Lamp Standard To Left Of Front Door

Eastfield is a large suburban house on Stanley Road, Leicester, dating from 1844, 1876, 1888, and 1904. It was built for Joseph Cripps in 1844, with extensions possibly by Goodacre in 1876, and further additions in 1888 and 1904 for C.S. Robinson.

The house is constructed in gault brick with stone dressings and blue-grey fish-scale tile roofs with stone-coped gables. It comprises two storeys and an attic, with a recessed centre section between two gabled cross wings and a single-storey projecting porch. The elaborate chimney stacks feature multiple flues.

The front elevation displays the various phases of construction. The centre section contains mullion or mullion and transom windows with leaded lights—three to the first floor—with the date 1844 above a gablet with elaborate bargeboards and finial. The double-leaved front door has an elaborately leaded overlight. The gable to the right, dated 1876, features a canted two-storey bay with plain sashes and a paired sash above. The left gable has mullion and transom windows with glazing bar sashes or casements. A service door dated 1888 is located in the section beyond. The far left range incorporates mullion and transom windows and a timber-framed first floor with a boldly projecting canted oriel supported on large brackets, with leaded-light windows and the date 1904 below the sill. A further leaded-light canted oriel is located on the left end. To the rear are garage doors with mullion and transom windows above and sashes and other windows in the yard service elevations. A very large 1950s wing extends from the rear of this range and is not of special architectural interest. The right end of the house features mullion and transom windows with sashes and a large canted bay, probably of 1904, with leaded lights and finely patterned stained glass in art nouveau style. The rear elevation is similar, with a mixture of mullion and transom windows and canted and square bays.

Internally, the house retains panelled doors and skirtings from the various periods. The entrance hall contains a two-leaved door with patterned glass to the upper glazed panels, a carved stone fireplace with crest in the frieze, a wooden overmantel, and dado panelling to the walls. The open-well stair features elaborate square newels, reeded string, and a balustrade with turned balusters. The room to the right has a white and grey veined marble fireplace. The rear right room, with a large canted bay, has an entrance screen with columns and pilasters and an ornamental plaster ceiling with cornice and frieze. An elliptical arched entrance leads to the canted bay, which contains a fireplace with wooden surround and marble inset. The central garden front room features a plaster cornice with elaborate pierced decoration incorporating flowers, fruit and foliage. A first-floor room in the 1904 wing has a fireplace with wooden surround, a columned screen to the front oriel, and fitted radiator covers and cupboards, probably for billiards equipment. Other simple fireplaces survive, as do the back stairs.

Standing to the left of the front door is an elaborate cast-iron lamp standard with a hexagonal lantern and ornamental domed cresting.

Eastfield represents a good-quality suburban villa with interesting evolution across four distinct building phases. The house is of considerable character and quality, with many internal features surviving from its various periods. It has been in institutional use since the Second World War.