White Ladies

White Ladies is an Art Deco house built in the 1920s or 1930s, located within a large suburban plot. The house is constructed of brick covered in unpainted roughcast render with red and buff coloured terracotta dressings.

The building is a detached two and three-storey structure with an approximately rectangular plan and a small, single-span conservatory in the south-east corner. The design is characterised by asymmetrical stepped elevations, metal windows and a flat roof with a plain parapet that conceals a roof garden and small swimming pool, accessed internally via the main staircase. Multiple channelled terracotta bands run horizontally across the elevations, creating a strong horizontal emphasis. The fenestration comprises large metal-framed casement windows of varying sizes, filled with small horizontal panes, set within unmoulded openings.

The main entrance is located on the north elevation within an off-centre, projecting square tower. The double-leaf wooden door features long, narrow outer panels and shorter inner panels of leaded lights with stained glass in a delicate stylised teardrop design, the outlines marked in lead. The doors retain decorative hinges and handles. Above the entrance is a semicircular arch formed of tile-creasing. Drainage pipes and hoppers are prominent features on the entrance tower. To the right, a recessed block is lit by a narrow ground-floor window and above by a large window that lights the staircase, embellished with stained glass in a delicate roundel design outlined in lead. Another large window with similar stained glass on the right return provides additional stairwell lighting. To the left of the entrance tower is a slightly recessed, stepped block with a canted bay window and a tall, narrow angled window supported by a corbel.

The south, garden-facing elevation is more regular, with a central glazed door in the same style as the fenestration, flanked by wide canted bay windows with plain parapets. The first floor is lit by three large horizontal windows. A small roof extension has been constructed on the right-hand side.

The interior is completely unaltered and retains its original plan form, central heating system, dumb waiter, built-in storage and joinery. Ceiling cornices have crisply moulded straight edges, skirting boards are plain and deep, and the solid balustrade of the staircase features a wide banister with simple moulding. One of the reception rooms contains an ashlared stone fireplace with deep concave moulding, a square opening and stone hearth, flanked by tall narrow windows with fitted glass display shelves. The bathroom retains off-white, brick-sized tiles with a dark dado band above which are much larger white square tiles, together with a pedestal wash basin.

To the east of the house stands a garage clad in roughcast render with a brick-coped parapet in the style of a simplified Dutch gable and a wide band of doors with vertical planks below and glazed panels above.

To the west is a small detached building, also clad in roughcast render with a flat roof, metal-framed window and an attached glazed structure.