East Weald

EAST WEALD, THE BISHOP'S AVENUE

Private house designed in 1910 by Henry Victor Ashley (1872–1945) and F. Winton Newman, built as the London residence of William Park Lyle of the Tate and Lyle fortune. The house is constructed of red brick with tile decoration, stone plinth, stone decorative panels, and a hipped green slate roof with large brick stacks. It follows an H-plan with a large service range to the north.

The entrance front is symmetrical, rising to two storeys with attic accommodation. A central arched entrance features double plank doors set within a Romanesque-inspired arched hood of brick voussoirs with billet moulding to the outer register; stone reliefs depicting animal scenes ornament the soffit, while a stone band of foliate decoration with animals sits above the hood. An oriel window above contains three six-pane windows within a decorative lead surround. This entrance bay is flanked by two bays on each side with arched mullioned windows to the ground floor and casement windows to the first floor. Projecting gabled wings either side have channelled quoins and canted two-storey bays with casement windows; segmental decorative tiled motifs appear at first-floor level, with lead facing to the parapet depicting animal and rural motifs in moulded decoration. Three pairs of dormer windows pierce the attic roof.

The south garden front features projecting central and end bays with canted oriel windows to the first floor of the end bays. A former verandah supporting a balcony with decorative leadwork has been infilled to the left; a modern fire-escape has been added to the right. Three dormer windows light the attic roof, and prominent chimneystacks with diapered decoration stand above. The east garden front retains gabled outer wings with canted bays beneath weatherboarded gables, though modern windows have been inserted and a disruptive modern addition has been made to the centre. Decorative tilework ornaments the aprons at first-floor level. A gabled projection at the centre contains a tall mullioned oriel window lighting the stairwell. The service range to the north is designed in a matching but plainer idiom, with a tiled gambrel roof, canted bays, and early garage openings to the west elevation.

The interior contains features of particular note. The entrance hall features a low groin-vaulted ceiling decorated with square plasterwork rosettes to the ribs, carried on heavily moulded Baroque-inspired entablature with screens at the north and south ends. The principal staircase is of oak, with barley sugar rails and newels decorated with polyhedra; it branches into a double staircase at half-landing level and is flanked by oak doors with circular Baroque decoration.

The former billiard room occupies the south-east corner of the ground floor and retains a coffered ceiling decorated with astrological panels and a heavily moulded fireplace surround with over-mantel. The former drawing room in the south-west corner retains a decorative plaster over-mantel. Principal rooms to the first floor have undergone considerable alteration, but original joinery survives widely in the lesser rooms of the attic and service range. The staircase in the service range features unusual arched newel posts with circular devices.

Wrought iron entrance gates in Baroque style form a subsidiary feature.

Designs for the house were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1910 and 1911. The house was later converted to a home for the blind before becoming a hostel for Chinese government employees. The building exemplifies the tendencies in smart suburban house design of its period, drawing on a combination of historicist and Arts and Crafts sources. The entrance front and entrance hall are particularly notable. It represents one of the finest houses in the Bishop's Avenue, a significant area of opulent suburban development, and embodies the affluent domestic taste of the Edwardian period.