Gilstead Hall

Gilstead Hall

A house, now subdivided into flats, built in 1726 and located on Coxtie Green Road at Pilgrims Hatch. The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with a roof of twentieth-century flat tiles.

The house follows a T-shaped plan and rises to three storeys. It is furnished with three chimney-stacks, positioned one on each end wall and one at the junction of bays 3 and 4 from the north.

The west front elevation is the principal facade, comprising nine bays with the central three bays projecting forward. Above the windows runs a parapet with sunk panels, finished with a cyma-moulded cornice. Two moulded string courses divide the floors: an upper cyma course and a lower hollow course. Window heads are detailed with gauged brick voussoirs. At the time of listing, windows were being replaced with twentieth-century sash copies with glazing bars. The ground floor contains eight windows with 3x4 panes. A central projecting porch of brick and timber features a segmented head with dentil moulding, a rectangular fanlight and sidelights with small leaded panes of green glass. The entrance door has six fielded panels, with an inner doorway featuring a semicircular fanlight. The porch sides each contain one fixed light with glazing bars (3x3 panes) above a single wide light. The first floor has nine windows with 3x4 panes, and the second floor nine windows with 3x2 panes. To the south of the house, a first-floor continuation beneath a shaped parapet with stone coping contains two sash windows with 2x4 panes.

The rear east elevation is similar to the front but irregular, with a projecting wing extending from the north end. The parapet here is plain, with undecorated cornice and string courses. The projecting wing has, at ground floor, two sash windows with 2x4 panes flanking Regency blind-box surrounds and a pedimented doorway between them. This doorway features a large fanlight with glazing bars (3x2 panes) and a twentieth-century door with upper glazing bars (3x2 panes) and two flush panels below. To the south, a twentieth-century door has six fielded panels. The first floor contains three window openings and a large staircase window opening with semicircular head; the window sill sits well below the others at this level. The second floor has four sash windows with 3x2 panes. The north end bay recedes from the projection and aligns with the main block; it has a blocked ground-floor window, whilst the first and second floors retain original window apertures reduced in twentieth-century work. The south end similarly recedes to the line of the main block, with ground floor featuring a separate unit in line with the projecting wing beneath a hipped twentieth-century felted roof containing four sash windows with 2x4 panes. Above this unit, the main house has two first-floor window apertures and three second-floor sash windows with 3x2 panes. A projection to the south in the service court has a hipped slated roof.

The south elevation's ground floor comprises service buildings projecting and continuing towards the east (not included in the listing). The first floor shows a blind window and one window aperture; the second floor displays one blind window and one sash window with 3x2 panes, with a stone panel inscribed "I.W Ano 1726" between them. The parapet features a central stack with stone coping and sunk panels on each side; a second later stack lies to the rear.

The north elevation shows the main house block and projecting wing set back one bay, with two stacks, one central to each unit. Simple cornice and string courses finish the elevation. The ground floor is plain; the first floor has three blind windows (2:1 configuration) and one window aperture to the west end; the second floor has four blind windows (2:2). The parapet displays sunk panels on the principal block.

The exterior brickwork is notably uniform with fine jointing throughout.

The interior, being refurbished and subdivided into flats, retains significant features. The entrance hall preserves fielded-panelled walls and a chimney-piece with stone surround. The floor is stone-paved with diagonally set small black squares on a white background and a central star pattern. An oak dogleg stair with open strings features three banisters per tread, carved brackets and a shaped handrail. Corinthian newel posts support ornamental banisters alternating with twist and flute decorations; a panelled dado lines the walls. A ground-floor room in the projecting wing displays fielded panelling and a dentilled cornice.

The marked contrast between the total uniformity of the front elevation and the irregularity of window and door grouping on the rear projecting wing suggests that the wing is either an afterthought or possibly a rebuilding of an existing structure that was adapted to the new front block.