The Gables

The Gables is a house built in 1895 to a design by John Alfred Gotch. It is constructed of red brick laid in English bond with limestone dressings, and the roof is covered in modern concrete tiles.

The house comprises two parallel ranges with pitched roofs: the south range has seven bays and two storeys, while the north range has eight bays with two storeys, attics and basement, plus a single-storey bay at the east end.

Exterior

The house is designed in Tudor and Jacobean style. The main south elevation presents a symmetrical façade of five bays, extended at the east end by a blind sixth bay which shows its gable end to the east. A gabled entrance bay is flanked by two recessed bays, but the elevation is dominated by two outer gabled bays containing two-storey canted bay windows and by a single-storey decorative central stone porch. The entrance has a moulded round arch flanked by fluted pilasters with carved spandrels, topped by an entablature and parapet surmounted by three pinnacles. The parapets above the canted bays contain strapwork decoration. Within the smaller central gable is a carved stone plaque bearing the initial B. All windows have mullions and transoms; the transoms to the ground floor bay windows are arched to the canted sides and centre. The outer gables are topped by finials and all three have limestone kneelers. Modern single and two-storey extensions have been added to the east end of this elevation, and a disabled ramp, modern steps and railings have been added in front of the porch.

The west elevation has three first-floor mullioned and transomed windows, below which are three semi-circular bay windows to the ground floor surmounted by parapets and with decorative leaded windows above the transoms. The north garden elevation has four gables with dormer windows; the two smaller central gables have kneelers with volute decoration surmounted by finials. The second gabled bay from the west contains a large three-tier, fifteen-light window. Between it and the west gabled bay, a large lift shaft constructed of corrugated sheeting has been attached. Between the first and second gabled bays from the east, a ground-floor window has been enlarged to create an additional door. At the east end, attached to the single-storey service rooms (originally the larder and boot room), is a modern single-storey red brick extension.

Interior

From the porch, double doors open onto a panelled hall. The south-east corner has been enclosed by modern partitions to create a separate office space, which contains the hall fireplace of carved wood, partly boarded over but with fluted pilasters and an overmantle with carved cornice. The hall ceiling contains decorative ribbed plasterwork with small pendants, and a wide arch with carved spandrels divides the hall from the stairwell to the north.

A doorway to the west of the entrance opens onto the drawing rooms. Its carved architrave includes four roundels with foliate decoration, a theme which recurs throughout the decorative scheme. The centre of one roundel contains two Bs, one reversed, while another bears the date 1895. The door has five fielded panels. The living room has a coffered ceiling, the ribs formed by beams enclosed in decorative plasterwork. The windows consist of one large canted bay and two rounded bays, all set under arches and moulded architraves. The windows contain decorative leading and retain their original furniture. A modern partition with a wide opening divides the room in two.

The room to the east of the hall, the morning room, has a similar south-facing canted bay window, a deep moulded cornice and a fireplace with overmantel. Opposite the morning room is the dining room, subdivided by a modern partition. Both halves retain a deep decorative plasterwork cornice and dado-height panelling with fielded panels, a section of which has been replaced with plain boarding. The original entrance is the door from the hall, but two modern doors have been inserted. The dining room and morning room are divided by a corridor running east to the kitchen and other service rooms.

An open-well staircase rises from the north side of the hall. The stairs are open string with splat balusters and square newel posts with vase-shaped finials. The stairwell is lit by the three-tier north window, the upper lights of which contain elaborately decorative leadwork, while the ceiling contains moulded plasterwork decoration. A modern glazed screen surrounds the landing.

Similar detail to that on the ground floor can be seen in the principal first floor corridors and rooms. This includes joinery in the form of arches in the corridor and around the two south bay windows, as well as architraves, doors, shelving, skirting boards and cornices. Most windows have decorative leadwork and original furniture. Some fireplace surrounds survive, but other fireplaces have been removed altogether. Modern rooms contain no details of interest. The upper part of the service stair at the east end of the corridor is enclosed, while the lower treads have plain stick balusters and newel post. The ground floor service corridor leads into modern extensions to the east and south.

Grounds and Setting

Although the gardens of The Gables now contain a number of modern hospital buildings, the long drive from Thorpe Road to the south survives. This enters the courtyard to the south of the house through a pair of low piers. To the east of the house, part of a screen wall containing a brick arched gateway survives.

History

In 1894, John Henry Beeby, a wealthy coal merchant, commissioned the Kettering firm of architects Gotch and Saunders to design a house on seven acres of land on the north side of Thorpe Road, within half a mile of the coal sidings beside the Great Northern Railway's east coast main line. The house, designed by John Alfred Gotch, was completed in 1895. Beeby died in 1924, but his widow continued to live in the house until 1933, when she sold it to George Ralph Baker, a director of the engineering firm of Baker Perkins. The Ordnance Survey map of 1901 shows the house consisting of a main double-fronted range with canted bays to the south elevation and semi-circular bays to the west, with a narrower, presumably service, range to the east. In 1947, The Gables became a maternity hospital and by 1968 had been extended to the east. In 1970, the building was converted to use as a psychiatric day centre. The extension to the east appears to have been either remodelled or rebuilt in its present form at some time in the 1990s.

John Alfred Gotch (1852–1942) established his first independent architectural practice in Kettering in 1878 and in 1887 entered into partnership with Charles Saunders. Their successful association lasted until their joint retirement on 31st December 1937. Gotch was also an architectural historian, specialising in early modern English houses, and was the author of many books and articles on the subject, the most famous of which is perhaps 'Architecture of the Renaissance in England' (1891). He was president of the Architectural Association from 1886 to 1887 and president of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1923 to 1925.