The Council House (Malvern Hills District Council Offices)

The Council House

A substantial residence built between 1874 and 1880 for Albert Miles Speer, designed by architect Henry Haddon and incorporating carved stonework by William Forsyth and stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The building was converted to a preparatory school between 1909 and 1925, and has served as council offices since 1925.

The house is constructed from coursed Cradley stone with ashlar dressings, brick chimneys and a tile roof. The service wing is of yellow brick and the conservatory is of timber and glass.

The building follows an irregular plan with a roughly square main block featuring projecting bays, arranged internally around a central hall that rises the full height of the building. A service wing extends to the north, with the conservatory and billiards room positioned to the east. A former gymnasium, now serving as the council chamber, stands adjacent to the north, oriented roughly north-west to south-east.

Exterior

The house is built in Perpendicular Gothic style, with the entrance elevation facing west and garden fronts to the south and east, all largely asymmetrical. Windows throughout feature mostly mullions and transoms. The main entrance comprises a projecting porch with a recessed door surrounded by panels with carved ashlar tracery. The porch has diagonal buttresses rising to crocketted finials with carved beasts below and a carved parapet between them. Above the porch at attic level is a large projecting dormer with a traceried window and ornamental flushwork at the apex.

To the south stands a projecting gable with further flushwork and a bay window with a parapet of carved quatrefoils. To the north, the stair tower rises four storeys with traceried windows and terminates in a parapet of open panels with winged beasts on each face, with a spire turret at the north-east corner.

The service wing projects to the north in yellow brick where it faces away from the road. Its north gable features flushwork of brick and stone beneath tall chimneys. The original kitchen is lit by four tall sash windows with a timber traceried dormer above and a slender gable adjacent above a door. A further single-storey wing projects at an angle to the north-east.

The south garden front comprises three bays with gables at each side flanking a central projecting canted bay that rises through two storeys with a ground floor door featuring carved foliate spandrels and trefoil-headed windows, further carved stonework above and winged grotesques on the parapet. The south-east corner has a large projecting oriel at first floor level with quatrefoil panels and traceried windows, all supported on a thick hexagonal shaft; its spire has been lost. The east elevation features a large canted bay at ground floor level, a projecting gable adjacent and ornate traceried windows beyond, with a projecting single-storey wing to the east containing a large conservatory.

Interior

Entry is through a lobby with a Minton tiled floor, extensive ornate timber panelling and a fireplace in a tiled and marble surround with carved panels above. The main hall, entered through an ornate screen, runs north-south through the building with a full height atrium now glazed over at each level. The hall floor contains sections of marquetry and parquet, with walls lined with dado linenfold panelling and patterned carving above. The ceiling is supported on moulded timber beams with a plaster cornice. The main stair rises from the northern end with carved newel posts surmounted by carved gryphons and balustrades of cusped arcading and quatrefoil panels. The south end of the hall features an ornate carved screen with Minton tiles beyond and stained glass in the bay providing access to the garden.

The principal rooms on the ground floor are arranged to the south and east, mostly retaining large ornate fireplaces. The former drawing and morning rooms retain plaster cornicing and foliate carved corbels across the bay window. The library has a panelled timber ceiling with moulded ribs and beams and carved pendants. Further stained glass appears in the corridor to the dining room and in the dining room itself, which retains timber panelling and accesses the conservatory beyond. The former billiards room retains a high glazed lantern with quatrefoil windows and carved panels beneath. The former kitchen retains stained glass in the dormer window. A large cellar beneath the service wing contains vaulted rooms.

The main stair rises to the first floor beneath a high corniced ceiling, with a section of fan vaulting beneath the smaller stair turret rising to the roof above. Stained glass features in all windows, including scenes from Aesop's Fables. The gryphon newel posts continue, and a ribbed stone arch at the top of the stair is supported on pairs of ornately carved corbels, each depicting birds among foliage. The first floor is arranged around a timber gallery with dado panelling to the walls. Former bedrooms retain ornate fireplaces mostly with tiled surrounds and plaster cornices to the ceilings. The south-east bedroom, now subdivided, features the corner oriel with stained glass windows.

The second floor landing has timber balustrading around the gallery; twentieth-century fire doors provide access to rooms mostly altered to create larger offices, though some retain fireplaces. The smoking room at the top of the tower has stained glass windows.

Priory Lodge, standing to the north and listed separately, was originally built as a gymnasium when the house was in use as a preparatory school. It stands close to the site of the original entrance lodge and has maintained a close functional and physical relationship with the Council House throughout its history.