Chigwell Manor House (Convent of the Sacred Heart)

Chigwell Manor House (Convent of the Sacred Heart)

An early 18th-century country house extended in phases during the 19th century, converted to a convent in 1896 and substantially enlarged with additional structures joined throughout the 20th century.

The principal building materials are yellow London stock brick with some stucco. Roofs are generally flat, though some pitched roofs are covered in slate.

The Manor House is entered from the north through an entrance lobby opening to principal reception rooms and a stair hall. Access to the upper storey is gained via a service stair in a smaller compartment to the east of the stair hall.

The north elevation is eight bays wide and three storeys high, with brick plat bands between each floor. The western three bays are set slightly back from the rest. Almost every window is a timber-framed sash window with horns, with one large pane over another; those on the second floor are smaller than those on the ground and first floors. The windows of the two eastern ground floor bays are combined in a projecting stucco bay. The adjacent bay at ground floor has a stucco arch within which is a stained glass window, and above that arch, spanning two storeys, is a canted oriel. The entrance is roughly central and combines two ground floor bays. The doorway sits within a brick arch and is flanked by narrow arched windows, all surmounted by a large broken-pediment segmental hood on curving consoles. Directly above the hood stands a statue of the Virgin Mary beneath a pointed lead canopy. The western three bays have a larger window in the centre, with a diminishing level of stucco applied at each floor until only the keystone is emphasised in the upper storey.

The rear south elevation is four bays wide and is mostly glazed in uPVC. One first floor window is larger than the others and lights the staircase. At the eastern end a canted bay projects towards the chapel wall. The east elevation includes a second canted bay overlooking the garden.

The circulation spaces contain significant amounts of original 18th-century and reproduction panelling that has been brush-grained. Panelling survives too in the first floor front rooms, now subdivided. Blocked chimney breasts in the entrance hall and rooms above indicate the earlier plan form in which these served as reception rooms. Box cornicing follows the same pattern as the panelling: a combination of survival and reproduction work.

The ground floor reception room to the west of the stair hall contains two six-panel doors with elaborate surrounds topped with segmental pediments decorated with carvings of shell, acanthus and flowers. Each has a painted crest with the legend 'Industria et labore' in a carved cartouche. The door panels are painted in imitation of inlay. One doorcase is cut at the right side to fit its present position, indicating it has been moved from elsewhere. This room also features a large green marble fire surround and a three-part mirrored overmantel; high skirting boards; and a heavily moulded cornice patterned with egg-and-dart and foliate motifs.

The reception room to the east of the entrance is a 19th-century creation and incorporates the former entrance bay, now marked by a stained glass window dedicated in thanksgiving to Our Lady of Quito for her protection during the Second World War. The window contains monograms, symbols, and the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary with an image of the Virgin Mary at the centre.

The stair and entrance halls are both floored at ground floor level with polychromatic encaustic tiles and panelled throughout. A wooden screen dividing the two spaces has embossed and brilliant cut panes of glass within six arches containing a pair of double doors. The stair ascends to the first floor in two long and two short flights. At its bottom the curtail step ends in a bullnose at either end. The stair has an open string with three twist-turned balusters to each tread and carved console tread ends. The toad's-back handrail ramps over taller Corinthian newel posts at every landing with carved pendants at their base. Dado panelling mirrors the form of the handrail and Corinthian newel posts. The south wall of the stair hall contains a large stained glass window donated by family members in memory of Mother Rosalie, showing the Virgin Mary, the monograms and Sacred Hearts of Jesus (left) and Mary (right), and symbols of the Passion and the Eucharist.

The first floor landing bathroom was completed in the 1920s and includes vitrolite bath panels and chrome fittings.

A pair of connected ground floor rooms in the 19th-century extension to the south west of the original house includes a number of six-panelled doors and timber sash windows. Each sash, without horns, has a single narrow lamb's-tongue vertical glazing bar, and one window retains a vertically sliding shutter.

The boundary wall to the north and east of the house, separating the inner grounds from the meadows beyond, is a continuation of the Grade II listed gates and railings.