Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum, 1 South Brink Place And 7 And 8 South Brink

OCTAVIA HILL BIRTHPLACE MUSEUM, WISBECH

A pair of houses at 1 South Brink Place and 7 and 8 South Brink, built as a single house around 1740 and extended eastward by three window bays around 1750–51, when it was converted into two houses. Early 19th-century rear extensions followed, and the building was subdivided into three properties around 1850. Number 1 South Brink Place was converted to the Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum in 1994–95. This is the birthplace of Octavia Hill (1838–1912).

The building is constructed of local brown brick with stucco dressings and has hipped slate roofs. It follows a double pile plan.

EXTERIOR

The front range has three storeys with a basement and extends across eight windows. Two matching doorcases feature shouldered stuccoed architraves, pulvinated friezes and segmental pediments. The left doorway (Number 7) has a half-glazed door, while the right doorway has an eight-panelled door with the upper two panels glazed. Basement forecourt railings between the doors stand in front of a bowed display window, converted from two sashes in the early 20th century. The fenestration consists of 6/6 unhorned early 19th-century sashes under gauged skewback arches; those on the first and second floors above the left doorway are blind windows, set in front of the east return wall of the original single house. Stuccoed platbands run between floors and under the parapet. The parapet was rebuilt in the early 19th century with a central pediment introduced. Three stacks are irregularly placed.

The west return to South Brink Place presents a four-window range, with the windows of the second bay blind. Two arched doorways to the right contain stuccoed cases with eight-panelled doors, the left one half-glazed. Fenestration here comprises 6/6 unhorned early 19th-century sashes. Stuccoed platbands and parapet continue across this elevation. A prominent stack projects from the wall plane.

REAR ELEVATION AND EXTENSIONS

The rear elevation features one gabled two-storey extension to the east and one to the west. The western extension dates to around 1740 with a flat-roofed extension added in the early 19th century in the form of a Chinese loggia: two open arches (subsequently glazed and boarded) within open lattice timberwork. The first floor displays a central ogee-headed two-light casement flanked by one 8/8 unhorned sash on either side with arched heads containing intersecting tracery.

The east extension was added in 1818 as a banking hall for James Hill. It was converted to domestic use in 1825 following the collapse of Wisbech bank. This extension has two arched 6/6 unhorned ground-floor sashes and two plain 6/6 unhorned sashes to the first floor, along with an additional centre-hung casement to the north.

The main rear wall features a tripartite ground-floor sash without glazing bars and one 6/6 sash to each floor above, the first-floor sash with horns. There is one additional second-floor casement and an arched staircase window to the west.

INTERIOR

Number 7 contains a late 18th-century staircase and modern office fittings.

Number 8 has a passageway to the staircase hall, now opened to the east for offices. A mid-18th-century closed string staircase in the rear pile features turned balusters, a moulded handrail and panelled square newels with matching panelled dado. A central first-floor drawing room has a doorcase with fluted pilasters and block entablatures. The room retains full plank and muntin panelling with dado panelling. A lugged fire surround with egg and dart mouldings contains a marble insert of around 1840 featuring a Chinese pastoral scene.

Number 1 South Brink Place contains a fine reception room to the north, formerly the dining room, with a doorcase displaying a pulvinated frieze and cornice over former stylised acanthus carving. A lugged fire surround with egg and dart mouldings sits beneath a frieze with raised floral carvings and two consoles supporting the mantelshelf. The room retains full plank and muntin panelling with a dado rail and a shouldered and eared overmantel panel.

The principal bedroom immediately above (now a display room) has square panelling below the dado rail and plank and muntin panelling above. The fireplace contains a 19th-century marble insert.

The ground-floor rear kitchen (formerly a shop) has a secondary late 18th-century staircase with stick balusters and a ramped and wreathed handrail.