Pilgrims Hall

Pilgrims Hall

This house at Pilgrims Hatch on Ongar Road combines work from the 18th century through to the early 20th century. It is constructed of stuccoed brick and plain red brick with hipped slated roofs.

The building comprises a central block flanked by projecting Regency bowed walls at the north-west and south-east ends. The north-west end projects back as a wing, creating a long north-west elevation, whilst the south-east end has a shorter wing with a mid-19th century rear block in the angle with the principal range. A contemporary stair tower stands in the rear angle of the north-west wing, and an early 20th century nursery wing was added to the back section of the south-east elevation. A porch was added to the central door on the south-west front, also early 20th century.

The south-east front elevation is the principal façade. It presents two storeys with a 1:3:1 window range beneath a parapet with a simple cavetto moulded cornice. The ground floor outer windows are bowed, dating to the early 19th century, with principal frames featuring side lights and reeded moulding. The sashes have been replaced but retain glazing bars in 1x2, 2x2, and 1x2 pane arrangements. The central unit contains two early 20th century four-light casement windows with small rectangular leaded panes. Between these stands an early 20th century timber porch with canted sides and a flat head with simple cornice, finished with Tuscan pilasters and windows with small rectangular leaded panes. The inner door is 20th century, set within a 19th century panelled doorway featuring a semicircular fanlight.

The first floor has two early 19th century outer bowed sash windows with thin glazing bars, each with 5x4 panes. The central block displays two plain outer 20th century sash windows with a central French window, each leaf containing one glazing bar and 2 panes. Between the bows runs a full-width early 19th century cast-iron balcony with ornamental railings and uprights and a swept canopy. To the south-east, set back, stands the front elevation of an early 20th century block of two storeys and attics in Regency style, featuring a bowed outer section and flat-headed attic windows above with dropped sills interrupting the eaves of the hipped roof. The bowed section contains three first-floor sash windows with glazing bars of 3x4 panes each, above a single ground-floor central window of the same design. Adjacent to the bowed unit is one window with glazing bars of 1x4 panes and a round window with glazing bars and a central 2x3 casement unit. The attic dormer windows all have glazing bars, two with 3x4 panes and one tripartite arrangement of 1x3, 3x4, and 1x3 panes. The north-west dormer has a continuation window below with 3x4 panes. A conservatory partly masks the ground floor.

The north-west end elevation rises two storeys in red brick laid in Flemish bond beneath a cement-rendered parapet with cavetto moulded cornice. The windows are unevenly spaced. The ground floor contains four French windows with moulded cement-rendered surrounds and boxing for blinds, each leaf with glazing bars of 1x3 panes. The first-floor windows are similar. All feature flat gauged brick voussoirs and sashes with glazing bars of 3x4 panes.

The south-east elevation marks the end of the early 20th century nursery block. A dominant central projecting stack with a prominent shaft in red brick on shaped shoulders forms the focal point. At first-floor level sits a depressed blind roundel with four keystones. The ground floor contains a central door through the stack with a semicircular fanlight, set in a depressed arch with tall side lights and tile bands linking to the windows in the side wall. These windows have glazing bars of 4x3 panes. The overall composition of this end wall is influenced by Lutyens' Tigbourne Court.

The rear north-east elevation comprises 19th century blocks with a 20th century end unit of two storeys and attics. The early 19th century wing to the south-east features a hexagonal bell turret with an ogee cupola. The windows in this and the north-west wing are segment-headed sashes with glazing bars. Both wings have two upper windows each with 3x4 panes. The south-east wing ground floor contains a 20th century segment-headed window, whilst the north-west wing ground floor has a 20th century bay window with casements of 4x2 panes. The mid-19th century unit and stair tower between the wings are built in red brick with segment-headed windows with sashes, some retaining horns. At the rear of the earliest central unit's ground floor stands an early 19th century curved door, now repositioned, with upper glazing of 4 panes. Above, in a segment-headed aperture, sits an early 20th century three-light window with small rectangular leaded panes. The early 20th century block to the south-east has a flat-roofed bay projection of two storeys with canted sides and an attached ground-floor porch on the north-west side with a hipped roof. The windows of the 20th century block, at ground and first floor, are mainly segment-headed sashes with glazing bars. The attic windows are flat-headed with sills dropped below the eaves.

The interior retains an early 20th century panelled hall matching the front door. Extensive 20th century subdivision has occurred. The end rooms have bowed fronts to the north-west. The hall features an Adam style ceiling with wheat-ear decoration. The south-east room has a heavier mid-19th century floral relief decorated ceiling in papier-mâché. A map dated 1795 at County Hall is said to show the building as a rectangle without the bowed ends. The structure is probably late Georgian with Victorian alterations, dated to around 1860, which create the Regency effect evident today.