Amersfort, With Forecourt Walls, And Linked Terraces And Loggia On South East

Amersfort is a large house built in 1911 by architect Ernest Willmott for W.S. Cohen. The garden is said to have been designed by Gertrude Jekyll. The initials "WSC" and the date "1911" appear alternately on the rainwater heads.

The house is constructed of narrow plum brick in English garden wall bond with red brick dressings. It features a deep plastered eaves cove and steep hipped red tile roofs. The design is symmetrical and two storeys with attics, built in Queen Anne Style. The house faces north-west with a formal axial approach and gardens that are terraced down the slope to the south-east. The plan is H-shaped, with a two-storey central porch on the north-west and a single-storey service wing at the north-east end.

The entrance front is nine windows wide and includes four hipped dormers. The first-floor windows are two-light flush oak windows with small-pane metal casements and flat tile arches. The ground-floor windows are deeper flush oak sash windows with 12 over 12 panes under similar flat arches. A red brick plinth and floor band run across the facade. Rusticated quoins ornament the wings and upper part of the porch. The lower part of the porch features channelled rustication with a moulded impost band. The entrance itself comprises a round arch with hollow moulded and rusticated detailing and a double keystone, leading to a groin-vaulted porch with three moulded steps to a stone-paved interior. A moulded shouldered Bath stone surround with keystone frames a wide two-panel raised and fielded oak door. Tall rectangular red brick internal chimneys with shallow arched faces rise through the elevations.

The garden front is raised on a tall flint and brick terrace wall. The centre section is five windows wide with five hipped dormers. Projecting wings at either end feature two-bay groin-vaulted loggias on their ground floors. The first-floor windows are two-light oak casements, while the ground floor has tall flush box sash windows with 12 over 16 panes. French doors open from the central section to the garden. Rusticated quoins and arches ornament the wings.

At the south-west end, a section four windows wide displays an oak balcony to the first floor, backed by a shallow arched recess. A stone female head serves as the keystone, with an arched cove below it over a coved semi-circular niche of finely gauged brickwork. Segmental-headed sash windows flank the niche on the ground floor. On the right-hand side is a rusticated round arched entrance to a loggia, while on the left-hand side a similar rusticated recess contains a circular window. Brick piers and an oak pergola link to the west forecourt wall. Oak paling fence tops the walls in the northern half of the forecourt.

The interior is arranged with main rooms facing south-east, accessed from a long stone-floored corridor with a timbered ceiling along the north-west side. An oak closed-string staircase with turned balusters reaches the upper floors through a Doric archway in Palladian motif at the west end. The Sitting Room is lined with raised and fielded two-panel doors and contains segmental pedimented cabinets flanking the fireplace. The Dining Room features bolection moulding and coved niches flanking a 18th-century style fire surround. The Library is groin-vaulted with a Dutch-tiled fireplace surround and panelled pilasters to the bookcases. The Kitchen, positioned at the north-east corner, faces north-west and displays white glazed walls, a stone floor, and an elegant wooden dresser.

Symmetrical terraces step down to the south-east of the house. Narrow raised terraces to the north-east and south-west terminate in bowed south-east projections, with a winding external stair at the north-east enclosing an arched loggia at the south-east.