Whewell House, including boundary walls to south and west

Whewell House

Whewell House is an Edwardian Baroque house built in 1906 to the designs of Amian Lister Champneys. It is now used as student residence for Trinity College.

The house is constructed of brown brick laid in Flemish bond with red brick dressings, beneath a machine tile roof. It faces west onto Grange Road and is approximately rectangular on plan, with a single-storey range to the north that was formerly used as a boiler room and store room.

The building is two storeys high with an attic storey. A hipped roof with two chimneystacks on the east slope sits above a modillioned eaves cornice. Along the front elevation, the cornice rises in two symmetrical round arches, one on either side of the central attic dormer. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers and brackets service the house.

The dormer attic features tripartite window arrangements on the centre of the west, north and south slopes, each comprising casement windows with the central window surmounted by a pediment and flanked by recessed casement windows with a flat roof. The east slope dormers either side of the centre have the same tripartite configuration but with segmental pediments rather than triangular. The central dormer is a single casement with a triangular pediment.

The front elevation to Grange Road is symmetrical, with brown brick walls, red brick quoins and surrounds, and a red brick platband over the ground floor. At ground level there is a central half-glazed door with a sunburst fanlight, surmounted by a round arched hood supported on two pairs of console brackets carved with scroll detailing. Either side of the door is a narrow three-pane fixed window, followed by two oeil-de-boeuf windows and two four-over-six pane sash windows at each end.

The first floor contains fifteen bays arranged in five groups of three windows. A central lugged window surround containing a three-over-three pane sash window is flanked on each side by a narrow two-over-two pane sash window. To the north and south of this is a double-height six-over-six pane sash window with a sunburst fanlight, flanked on either side by a four-over-four pane sash window. The outermost bays have a six-over-six pane sash window flanked by a four-over-four sash window to each side.

The garden elevation has a symmetrical composition comprising sixteen windows arranged in pairs to either side of two full-height bays, each bay containing five windows on each floor. The bays align with the tripartite attic dormers. A central door opening on the ground floor consists of a half-glazed timber door with a plain overlight, flanked on either side by a narrow three-over-three pane sash window.

The single storey projection to the north has four casement windows to its front elevation and three to its north elevation. A central, narrow, flat-roofed single-storey projection extends from the ground floor of the south elevation. Detailed with a modillion cornice, the roof rises in a round arch and is flanked by nine-over-nine pane sash windows. Both north and south elevations have a single nine-over-nine pane sash window to the first floor.

Interior

The Edwardian Baroque character of the exterior continues on the interior with well-preserved classically inspired details. The half-glazed door of the front elevation leads to an entrance lobby, which also has a half-glazed door and overlight mirroring those of the exterior. The entrance lobby grants access to an entrance hall, which continues directly east through a classically inspired round-headed arch to the garden door. This garden door is flanked by engaged pilasters, with a plinth forming a sill for the neighbouring windows.

Turning right from the entrance hall, there is a grand stair hall with a large statuary niche in the south-east corner and doors leading off to rooms on the south and east walls. On the west side, a well-lit stair elegantly rises to the first floor, with carved balusters set alternately with splat balusters and square newel posts surmounted with ball finials. The splat balusters are carved on the stair side to give the impression of a continual run of carved balusters but are simple panels on the hall side, following the line of uprights from fine timber panelling beneath the closed string stair.

The room south of the stair hall is currently used as an academic office and contains a plain but elegant cornice and picture rail. Engaged pilasters sit either side of the panelled fire surround, now blocked. The room to the east of the stair hall contains a canted fireplace set in an arched niche with panelled doors revealing an integrated bookshelf overmantel. The grate is surrounded in simple tiling.

To the left off the entrance hall is a half-glazed door leading to a corridor, with smaller rooms to the east, a kitchen to the north, and a service stairs to the west.

The first floor landing has rooms leading off to the south and east overlooking the garden, featuring classical carved door surrounds of engaged columns over engaged octagonal piers. These rooms contain simple cornices and simple but elegant fireplaces with splayed mantles, stepped surrounds and simple tiling. Some fireplaces are blocked and some have replacement glazed tiling. From the landing a half-glazed door leads to a corridor with bedrooms to the east and north and a service stairs to the west, allowing access to the attic.

The first room to the east off the first floor corridor has an ornately moulded frieze depicting flowers, foliage and scrolled decoration. The second floor contains a range of spacious bedrooms occupying the spaces created by the dormer windows, each bedroom containing a simple but elegant fireplace and built-in storage. The room at the south end of the corridor has a segmental-headed door surround.

Setting

Whewell House is bounded to the west to Grange Road by a red brick plinth wall with stone coping. There is a small garden to the south, which is bounded by a red brick wall.