Avalon

Avalon

House built around 1907 with additions and alterations during the 1920s and later, constructed for Herbert Washington Broome by builder J Jaggard of Bushey. The building is rendered in roughcast on brick with tall roughcast chimney stacks and a plain tiled roof, designed in the late Arts and Crafts style.

The house follows an irregular L-plan, comprising two storeys with single storey offshuts that incorporate workshop and studio facilities. The entrance elevation faces east and features an asymmetrical roof with oversailing eaves above a corner entrance porch. The porch is open-sided, defined by timber posts with angle braces, and contains the principal doorway which is a wide, vertically boarded door hung on full width straps with decorative door furniture. An elaborate metal bell-pull is mounted on the right-hand flanking wall. To the right of the porch is a tall semi-circular headed stair window with a plain hood mould, followed by two stacked shallow three-light windows with brick beads and cills.

The garden elevation to the south has a central gable incorporating a ground floor canted bay window with two two-light windows above. The roof slope extends over the porch to the right, while to the left a single storey studio range with lean-to against the north wall features a two-light window and plank door to the south wall. The north elevation displays a central gable with an advanced gablet to the right, and an advanced chimney breast to the left with an arched recess to the centre and a single light window inset.

The interior is richly decorated throughout. The entrance hall contains a wide plank door set in plain oak surround with a painted panel by Myrtle Broome above the door head and a pendant light fitting in pierced metalwork. A winder stair with plain newels and flat balusters leads upward.

The living room is the principal interior space, featuring exposed joists and cross beams with elaborate carved bosses at their crossing points. The principal hearth sits beneath a canopy with carved decoration to the head beam, support beams, and angle braces. The surround is plain with a carved mantle shelf bearing the date '1907', and above it an elaborate overmantle of carved timber with diamond and lozenge patterning, fan patterned mosaic work, and painted heraldic shields. Beneath the shields is an inscription reading 'WHYLE EVERY MAN IS PLESED IN HIS DEGREE, THERE IS BOTH PEASE AND UNETI'. The room is plain panelled with carved frieze work to the panel heads forming display shelving. To the left of the hearth is a decorated niche. Window and door openings have decorative pelmet canopies bearing inscriptions, with fitted bookshelves and a canted dresser cabinet also integrated into this carefully designed interior.

The studio contains a kiln with decorative tilework and a pelmet canopy to the window with painted decoration by Myrtle Broome. The kitchen retains contemporary cupboard fittings and a plank door. The front bedrooms feature canopy frames to bed recesses and decorated window pelmets. One front bedroom has a hearth overmantle with carved and painted decoration.

Washington Broome was a contemporary of William Morris and worked with Morris at the Kelmscott Press before establishing The Old Bourne Press with James Guthrie. Myrtle Broome was a designer and craft worker who designed for Liberty's. Avalon served as the home and business premises of the Broomes' enterprise as 'Designers and Workers in Metal and Enamel'. Broome designed and carved many of the interior fittings himself, and the remarkably rich and well-preserved interior is what distinguishes this building from its contemporaries. It is of special interest as a building created for a designer and craftsman of the Arts and Crafts Movement, containing a rich variety of decorative elements of the period designed by Broome and his daughter.