48 Storey's Way

An Arts and Crafts house built in 1913 to the designs of M. H. Baillie Scott.

Materials and Construction

The house is built of brick covered in whitewashed cement render with a rough texture. The roof is covered in plain red clay tiles of variegated hues, with late 20th-century red brick chimney stacks laid in stretcher bond.

Plan and Setting

The house is positioned towards the north end of a long, narrow garden plot. It has a long rectangular plan facing north-eastwards towards the road, with a small lobby and store projecting from the north corner. The plan is laid out on a cross axis with the front and back doors aligned, and the reception rooms and bedrooms positioned along the south-west garden front.

A later garage that was added on the east side of the north-east elevation was removed in 1991.

Exterior

The house presents a striking and picturesque Arts and Crafts appearance. It has two storeys and an attic under a dramatic roofscape from which rise two tall chimney stacks with water tabling and narrow projecting caps: one is a ridge stack on the left side, and the other passes through the rear pitch on the right side and has a small roof masking the joint with the main roof.

The principal north-east elevation has a two and a half storey gabled wing with a low sweep on the right side, and to the left a lower, two-storey gabled stair bay set forward, both with swept valleys. The steeply pitched roof over the main range on the left side sweeps down to ground-floor level.

The fenestration consists of horizontal casements of a varying number of leaded lights in wooden frames set flush with the wall. Those on the façade and on the ground floor of the garden frontage are cambered. On the left is a door of three vertical studded panels with long iron strap hinges and iron latch which leads into what was originally the bicycle store, which also gave direct access to the study. This is followed by a single, a three-light, and then a five-light casement, and the first floor above has a hipped dormer with exposed rafter feet which lights the corridor.

The roughly central front door is set in a hollow chamfered door surround under the eaves against the inner stair gable. It has three vertical studded panels with moulded muntins, a rail carved in a grape and vine design, long iron strap hinges and an iron latch. The gabled stair projection has a two-light first-floor casement and a small light in an exposed brick surround set low off the ground. There is a similar small stair light to the left return.

The taller asymmetrical gabled bay has a two-light and three-light casement on the ground and first floors and a two-light casement above. The roof on this north corner extends over the single-storey lobby, with coal store and former outside water closet, which provides covered access to the kitchen and to the garden. All openings have painted plank and batten doors with iron latches.

The near symmetrical garden front has a central door of three vertical studded panels with moulded muntins, long iron strap hinges and an iron latch, in a moulded timber doorframe with a slightly cambered head. This is flanked by canted bays with flat leaded roofs and casements above a rendered plinth. To the left is a three-light mullion and transom window to the kitchen, and to the right is a small fixed light to the inglenook and a four-light mullion and transom window to the study, followed by a door of two vertical planks to the study set under the covered section of the pergola (or 'garden room' as it is called on the original plan).

The first-floor casements are set under the eaves and slightly offset above the ground-floor openings. The two-light central window is flanked by six-light windows above the canted bays and four-light outer casements. There is a pair of hipped two-light dormers above.

The north-west gable end has an entrance to the kitchen on the right, and irregularly positioned windows: two two-light casements on the ground floor, a single and two-light casement above, and a single-light window in the attic.

Interior

The interior represents Arts and Crafts design of the first order in which carefully chosen materials have been finely worked to bring out their innate qualities. The plaster on the walls and ceilings has a slightly rough texture rather than presenting a bland smoothness; and the structural timber has been roughly finished with an adze to suggest, as Baillie Scott wrote, 'in a far-off way the beauty of the woodland', whilst the joinery has a smoother finish. The floors are laid in planks of varying width with the exception of the flag-stoned hall passage.

The doors to principal rooms are of eight panels with iron or timber latches, whilst those to the service end are vertically boarded with long iron hinges. All the windows have square section mullions and transoms, those on the ground floor also with polished sills, and all have ornate iron latches and stays, some replaced, copying original models.

The transverse hall passage has a ceiling of exposed joists, a panelled dado of lapped panels under a flat shallow cornice, and internal windows to the former larder set in a timber framed partition.

The sitting room or 'hall' has a ceiling of exposed chamfered beams and joists and overlooks the garden on one side, and on the other has an alcove supported on braced posts looking over the entrance front. The inglenook fireplace has a tall curved metal hood (copying an original model from another house), a new grate, and a shallow bracketed shelf above the bressummer. There is a settle on the right hand side.

A pair of doors leads into the dining room, each of eight panels with timber latches, which fold back against the timber framed partition to create a large open space. The dining room has a four-centred arch stone chimneypiece set in a fully panelled wall with two inset panelled doors with snakehead hinges. The delicate modelled plasterwork ceiling and frieze, by J. C. Pocock, has raised moulded ribs forming a geometric eight-petalled flower, embellished by Tudor roses.

The study, accessed via a discreet opening in the sitting room, has a ceiling of exposed beams and joists, and two framed alcoves: one overlooks the front garden and leads to the bicycle store; the other on the end wall leads through to the garden room. The brick fireplace has a simple chamfered opening.

The timber framed open well stair has square newel posts with distinctive facetted cushioned finials, turned balusters supporting a deep moulded handrail, and a panelled dado. The top of the flight takes the form of a three-light gallery with wooden tracery with foliated cusps salvaged from a medieval church.

The first-floor corridor runs the length of the house, with a small central raised landing, off which the garden-facing bedrooms are accessed. These have small brick fireplaces with a cambered arch and slate hearth, some with hob grates, probably also salvaged; and some rooms have built-in cupboards. Rising from the room on the south end is a steep narrow stair that divides into two to provide access to the interconnecting attic rooms. There is another closed-in straight flight at the other end of the corridor.

In the kitchen, the alcove for the range remains, flanked by a large built-in cupboard on the right, and a door to the servery on the left. The service bell and indicator board is in situ, and the larder has a red-tiled floor.

Garden Features

The two covered sections of the pergolas, or 'garden rooms', extend from the outer bays on the south-west garden front. These have square section timber shafts on brick and stone bases with a floor laid in herringbone brick edged in stretchers. The garden rooms extend seamlessly into the five-bay pergolas which have rough hewn poles and a floor laid in basketweave brick edged in cobblestone.

The two lawns located between the pergolas are bordered along their south-west side by rill-shaped brick plant boxes terminating on the inner edge in low square brick piers with moulded stone square caps and a frieze with an elongated embattled pattern.

Towards the end of the plot between the wild garden and vegetable garden is an oval pergola, designed as a vinery, on a brick plinth with slender poles which replaced the rotten original structure.