Consolata Missionary House

Consolata Missionary House, Totteridge Green

This large suburban house was built in 1898-99 by T. E. Collcutt (1840-1924), the eminent late Victorian and Edwardian architect best known for designing Wigmore Hall, the Imperial Institute in South Kensington (now demolished), the Savoy Hotel, and numerous prominent commercial buildings. Originally called Strathearn House, it is a fine example of Arts and Crafts-influenced domestic architecture in a deliberately Middlesex-inspired idiom, comparable with Collcutt's own nearby residence, The Croft.

The house is constructed of red brick with roughcast and half-timbered gables, with a tiled roof. It is two storeys with attics, arranged on an irregular rectangular plan with projecting ranges to the north-east, south-east and south. Modern additions to the entrance and south side are of no particular interest.

The entrance front features a gabled wing to the right with a five-light mullioned window to the first floor set beneath a partly half-timbered gable and a tall chimney stack to the left. A large single-storey entrance addition, incorporating a doorway with stone quoins, conceals a half-timbered porch in the angle. The ground floor has arched lights with stone mullions; the first floor displays irregular fenestration. To the left stands a gabled range with a canted bay containing five-light arched windows set within stone surrounds. The projecting east range has a large but truncated chimney stack on its north side, a six-light window to the ground floor and an oriel window to the first floor of the gabled east side. A single storey range to the south has tall chimney stacks. The south-eastern elevation is of roughcast with irregular fenestration to half-landings and the attic of the service wing.

The garden front exploits the house's fine hillside position. The main range displays a ground floor verandah set between projecting gabled wings. The south-western wing, of two storeys and attic, features a seven-light ground floor window, a seven-light oriel to the first floor and a four-light attic window, with a chimney stack to the right. The central section is approached by steps with ball-finial round piers leading to a verandah carried on square pegged wooden columns with bracing. Ground floor windows are arched within stone surrounds; an arched glazed door within a stone surround bears carved pomegranate reliefs in four panels to the overdoor. The first floor has irregular fenestration. The north-western wing has a three-register five-light square window to the ground floor and a six-light oriel window to the first floor beneath a tiled canopy. The north-west gabled range features a truncated chimney breast, irregular fenestration and a glazed canopy to a car port.

The interior has been little altered and retains numerous features of interest. These include an oak-panelled parlour at the centre of the main range, originally open along the east side to the passage but now divided off by a matching screen wall. The wide fireplace at the south end has an arched opening with a grey limestone surround, into which are set decorative cupboards. Double doors open into a sitting room to the north, which features a classical chimney-piece within a recessed snug. The main stairs are of closed string construction with turned balusters, square newels and wide wooden hand-rails. A sitting room to the south has panelling to the dado and a stone fireplace with an oak over-mantel. The service wing retains joinery and secondary stairs with plain rails and ball finials to the newels. A third staircase in the north wing has turned balusters and ball finials.

The house became a Carmelite nunnery in 1968, when alterations were carried out to adapt it for use by this closed order.