Walsingham Cottage And Attached Walls, Gatepiers, Steps And Gates

Walsingham Cottage and Attached Walls, Gatepiers, Steps and Gates

Walsingham Cottage is a purpose-built chauffeur's cottage constructed in 1910 for Horton Harrild Esq. at Manor Park in Chislehurst. It was designed by Frederick Harrild, a pupil and assistant to Edwin Lutyens from 1908, and represents an early and significant example of Arts and Crafts domestic architecture adapted to servant housing.

The cottage is built in red brick varied with random purple bricks, laid in Flemish bond with plain clay tiled hipped roofs. Two large multi-flue chimneys in Elizabethan style, with diagonally-placed stacks, punctuate the roofline. The building is one storey with attics and features an unusual L-shaped plan with the entrance facing north, a curved wall to the south west enclosing a garden courtyard, and connections to outbuildings in the kitchen yard to the south.

The original windows remain intact, with oak sub-framing, quarry-glazed cast iron casements and original ironmongery. Window and door openings retain tiled cills and tiled lintels. Three hipped dormers with plain clay tile hipped roofs and tile-hung cheeks survive unchanged. A distinctive construction detail is the brickwork soffits to the overhanging eaves, which is most unusual.

The north or entrance front has three hipped dormers, a four-light mullioned window to the left and to the right a large doorcase set within a glazed surround of two tiers—four lights above, two below—with an oak plank door. The east front facing the road displays two hipped dormers, a small single mullion set high in the wall, and a central circular stone plaque inscribed with the motto "Respice Finen" and the date 1910 above a floral motif. A mid-20th century wooden four-light canted bay with leaded lights is set to the right. Attached to the south is high brick walling with hipped tiled coping, incorporating a round-headed opening with a round-headed three-plank door with studs and original ironmongery leading to the kitchen yard. The south east side features a tripartite mullioned window linked to a painted oak three-plank door with studs and original ironmongery. The south west curved elevation has one hipped dormer to the right, a four-light mullioned window to the left, and in the centre a round-headed window and door opening, both with stone impost blocks and leaded light casement and plank door. High brick walls with hipped tiled coping enclose the garden courtyard to the north west and south west.

The kitchen yard comprises a one-storey painted brick structure housing a WC and coal store, featuring a central round-headed brick arch flanked by plank doors with rectangular fanlights containing leaded lights. This is linked to the main house by a paved yard and semi-circular steps. A low brick terrace wall extends north eastwards from the south end of the east front to the boundary, incorporating an entrance with an original two-panelled wooden gate with depressed arch and closely spaced diamond-shaped mullions to the upper panel. Stone steps and a paved path lead from this gate south eastwards to the south eastern boundary wall fronting the road. This comprises a low brick retaining wall, battered to the base with stone coping, and two tall square brick gatepiers with stone coping, each flanked by identical two-panelled wooden gates.

Interior

The staircase-hall contains an impressive dogleg staircase with stick balusters, a moulded mahogany handrail and upper gallery. The south east ground floor room, formerly the kitchen, retains a central spine beam and displays double and single high-level round-headed alcoves in the east wall, together with a cambered fireplace topped by a solid oak shelf, copper hood and zigzag tiled surround. The north western room features a central brick fireplace with a cambered arch of tiles set on edge, tile-on-edge impost blocks and a herringbone brick hearth, flanked by round-headed arches—the right hand one containing shelving and cupboards, the left forming a surround over a two-panelled door. The south eastern room, formerly the scullery and later converted to kitchen use, retains its original fire surround. The ground floor bathroom was constructed from the original larder. The upper floor contains a corridor with curved staircase gallery and multiple doorcases with shouldered architraves and two-panelled doors, the upper panels octagonal in shape. Originally there were three bedrooms, one later converted to a bathroom, each containing a narrow wooden fireplace with cast iron firegrate.

History

Original plans of 1909 document that Walsingham Cottage, together with its retaining walls and garden gates, was specifically constructed as a chauffeur's cottage for the main house, Walsingham, a large detached Queen Anne style residence of red brick built in 1874 by George Somers Leigh Clarke. Frederick Harrild, of 10 Grays Inn Place, was the architect. Walsingham was owned by Horton Harrild Esq. between 1910 and 1937, who may have been related to the architect but was not his father, though both bore the name Frederick. Frederick Harrild junior's work as a pupil of Lutyens included the terraced walls and garden buildings at Castle Tor, Torquay (listed grade II), and the cottage represents his earliest work in Chislehurst, likely his first proper independent commission.

The cottage remains largely unaltered externally except for one window enlargement on the east side executed in matching style. Internally it retains all original doors, fireplaces and the imposing staircase. It qualifies as a good quality Arts and Crafts cottage by a major architect's pupil and represents an unusually refined and well-appointed purpose-built chauffeur's residence for its type and period.