83 And 83A, Holly Walk (Upper)

Nos. 83 and 83A Holly Walk (Upper), Royal Leamington Spa

A villa built around 1838, substantially remodelled in 1889 with an interior commissioned from James Plucknett and Company of Leamington and Warwick, executed in Aesthetic Movement style with Renaissance and Elizabethan Revival features. The house is constructed of pinkish-brown brick with a painted stucco front façade and Welsh slate roof.

The exterior comprises two storeys with a central hallway plan and a range to the rear. The front elevation features three first-floor windows flanked by outer canted bays rising to full height, with a plinth and moulded first-floor band incorporating a central engaged balustrade. The first floor contains a central 1/1 sash window between the bays, with 1/1 sashes having margin-lights to the centres and upper-lights to the sides, all set in tooled reveals. The ground floor is dominated by a central entrance of a four-panel door with sidelights beneath an overlight with sidelights, sheltered by a distyle Doric porch with engaged pilasters and a cornice on corbels. The bays contain 1/1 sash windows with margin-lights to the centre and upper-lights to the sides, all in tooled reveals, and all windows feature blind boxes throughout. The façade is finished with a modillion cornice and fish-scale roof, while tall end stacks with cornices complete the exterior.

The interior contains exceptionally fine and well-preserved joinery throughout. The drawing room is executed in Renaissance Revival style with an inlaid satinwood panelled dado featuring marquetry panels, a built-in china cabinet decorated with carved caryatids and niches, and a fireplace surround with caryatids and an elaborate niched overmantel. Carved architraves frame the doors, window cornices are present, and a deep frieze over the picture rail is painted in Pre-Raphaelite manner depicting classical maidens between trees, with a further frieze of grapes and a cornice with egg-and-dart moulding.

The library is lined with walnut panelling and features matching built-in bookcases all decorated with pilasters, columns and elegant strapwork. The chimneypiece displays a decorative oak panel depicting Elizabeth I on horseback at Tilbury Fort. The door bears mock bookbindings, a moulded frieze, and a moulded, panelled ceiling with flower ornaments. Stained glass windows light the room.

The dining room features oak panelling with pilasters and carved decoration, with frames for 1850 prints of Renaissance religious works, some remaining in situ. A built-in Renaissance Revival buffet with bulbous legs and a carved panel depicting a feasting scene is inscribed with the motto 'FEAST WITH BEST AND WELCOME TO MY HOUSE'. The chimneypiece displays caryatids reputed to be portraits of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and a carved hunting scene, with remains of a moulded plaster frieze featuring acanthus scrolls. The rear windows contain stained glass.

The hall features an arch with caryatids and an openwell staircase with turned balusters and a wreathed handrail. A stained glass staircase window dated 1889 portrays Shakespeare. The upper hall displays sunflower motifs.

The main bedroom on the first floor is panelled in oak with built-in wardrobes and cupboards featuring strapwork decoration, and stained glass to the windows. The second bedroom is fitted with mahogany panelled dado, a carved fireplace and overmantel, built-in wardrobes, a pilastered architrave to the door, a frieze with angels, and a cornice. The third bedroom is executed in Neo-Classical Revival style with a rosewood fireplace and overmantel, a teak door and architrave inlaid with fruitwoods and featuring fluted Ionic pilasters, and an ornate plaster frieze. Furniture bears inlaid ivory labels reading 'J. Plucknett & Co. Cabinet Works, Warwick'. Most windows have shutters, and doors are principally six-panel.

The Plucknett interior was originally installed in the Urquart family house on Newbold Terrace, since demolished, and was transferred to this property around 1908–9 by Mary Urquart. In 1892, Plucknett and Company provided furnishings for the Royal Pavilion at the Royal Agricultural Show held in the grounds of Warwick Castle, where the Elizabethan-style dining room and satinwood sitting-room furnishings were displayed by permission of the owner. The company also created the furnishings for Leamington Spa Town Hall. These fittings were offered for auction by Sotheby's in September 1984 but remained unsold. They represent an important surviving example of work by this Warwickshire carver. The house was built for William Thomas's own occupation.

The villa forms an architectural pair with No. 85 Holly Walk (Upper) and together with Nos. 79, 81 and 87 forms a group on the street.