Stone House

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 01/10/2012

TQ3776 8/D14 4424 5.7.50

LEWISHAM WAY SE8 (North-east side) No 281 (Stone House)

GV II*

Villa. c.1771-3 by George Gibson the Younger for himself. Brick core with Kentish ragstone facing, with stone banding, window surrounds and quoins; hipped slate roof. Parapet lowered and rear bay extended c.1930. Two storeys with set-back attic, which incorporates hidden chimneys. Square plan at angle to road, each side five bays wide, with first floor tetrastyle logia over built out ground floor, bow windows on returns. Ground floor entrance hall with first-floor piano nobile. At ground floor angles stout buttresses curved out at base. All windows with glazing bar sashes, round-headed to first floor, flat-headed to ground floor. Road front first floor blank but for three round-headed windows in bow; four ground-floor windows. South-east entrance front has five windows, three in centre bay, the middle one higher. Four-panel door well set back in moulded wood architrave with cornice over. North-west front with loggia; columns with capitals formed of leaves and florets, as also used by Gibson in his St Mary's church, Lewisham (q.v.). Wrought-iron railings to loggia and wrought-iron screens to heads of round-arched first-floor windows.

The interior is particularly interesting. Ground-floor entrance leads to circular vestibule, flanked by two small square rooms, one leading to the old kitchen and pantry. Some original shelving and latticed partitions survive; doors have been moved and rehung. Vestibule also gives on to tight, top-lit octagonal staircase with vaulted ceiling and skylight. The sides of the stairwell have raised panles and roundels containing, in low relief, neo-classical busts of the Hanoverian kings. Principal flight leads to first-floor piano nobile, a secondary stair continues to the attic bedrooms; both have wrought-iron balusters and a mahogany handrail. Patterned stone sets to floors on ground and first floors. First floor has principal drawing rooms: a circular space separated by open Ionic columns from two square spaces with vaulted ceilings. Domed and fluted ceiling, with some mid-C19 decoration, but with Adamesque, arabesque decoration to surrounding frieze late C18. Handsome marble fireplace with cast-iron firebacks. Adjoining rooms also with good late C18 fireplaces, panelled double doors and dadoes. 'A very personal interpretation of the villa form that had been revived by Chambers and Taylor in the 1750s', Cherry and Pevsner, 'The Buildings of England, London South', 1983, p. 411.

Listing NGR: TQ3719476292