Former Squash Court at Rivercourt House

The Former Squash Court at Rivercourt House is a two-storey rectangular building, built with brown brick and in-situ cast concrete, measuring approximately 9 meters by 6 meters. The ground floor includes a garage, garden room, store-room, and an open loggia, while the upper floor houses the squash court, which is accessed via an external staircase.

The upper storey is a tall, windowless brick box that features a serpentine profile on the south, east, and west walls, enhanced by a subtle diaper pattern of black bricks. On the south side, facing the garden, there is a loggia supported by four sharply-fluted concrete columns set between square brick end piers. Above the loggia, a curving lintel is adorned with bas-reliefs by sculptor Gertrude Hermes, depicting waves, vines, ears of wheat, a ship, a horse, and a cockerel. The original large concrete flower boxes that filled the gaps between the columns have been removed. The loggia has a stepped ceiling, and a niche on its inner wall contains a bronze snail sculpture by Hermes, which originally functioned as a fountain. The garden room and garage feature metal-framed windows and doors; the garage has been slightly enlarged and its main doors replaced. To the west, an external spiral staircase with curving concrete treads is set into a cylindrical brick newel and features a decorative wrought-iron handrail. The upper flight leads to a viewing gallery, which is located in a cantilevered segmental projection on the west wall. A large bronze weather-vane in the shape of a seahorse, also sculpted by Hermes, crowns the newel.

Inside, the squash court is plain and functional, with hard plaster walls, a sprung wood floor, a timber viewing gallery, and a large skylight. Since its conversion to a drama studio, the walls have been painted black and the floor covered. The garden room has lost its seating and panelling but still retains its unusual coved ceiling.