Corner House

Corner House is a substantial Victorian house, now converted to flats, designed by the prominent architect Richard Norman Shaw and built in 1868–69. It was an early example of his work in the Old English style, commissioned by George Lillie Craik and his wife Dinah Maria Craik, the celebrated novelist. Shaw added a billiard room in 1872 for the same clients. The house was converted to flats in the 1930s, and those additions are of lesser architectural interest.

Construction and Materials

The ground floor is built of red brick in Flemish bond, while the upper floor is tile-hung with curved tiles. The roof is tiled with ornamental ridge tiles and tall, ribbed brick chimneystacks, some of which have been truncated. Windows are mainly wooden mullioned or mullioned-and-transomed casements, many fitted with leaded lights.

Plan and Layout

The building is asymmetrical and two storeys high. The principal rooms are located to the south-west, with the billiard room added on a projecting spur to the north-west. The service wing and stable wing are arranged around two sides of a yard to the north-east, originally enclosed by a wall. The original interior plan comprised a hall with a well staircase and cloakroom, a library to the south-east with interconnecting doors to the south-west drawing room, and a dining room opposite the staircase. To the north were the kitchen, larder, and scullery, with an attached stable wing.

Exterior: Entrance Front

The entrance front faces south-east and has three bays. The central bay projects at upper floor level, while the left bay is recessed. The recessed left bay features a tile-hung gable with a three-tier, three-light wooden casement window with leaded lights. At ground floor level is a five-light mullioned-and-transomed bay window with a conical roof, originally serving the library.

The central entrance bay has a projecting gable with bargeboards and a moulded bressumer to the attic, and a jettied first floor supported on four large curved brackets. The first floor has a six-bay mullioned-and-transomed oriel window with a coved base. At ground floor level is a double mullioned-and-transomed window with trefoil heads and leaded lights, adjoining an arched door case with a panelled door fitted with large ornamental hinges. A corner brick buttress is present, and the left return has a three-light mullioned-and-transomed casement at ground floor level.

The right-hand bay has a small triple mullioned window at first floor level and a triple mullioned-and-transomed window at ground floor level. The right side of the principal part of the house features a truncated chimneystack, some windows inserted in the 1930s, and a 1930s external staircase with solid concrete balustrading. The set-back former kitchen has a four-bay mullioned window with leaded lights at first floor level and a projecting mullioned-and-transomed casement at ground floor level. The projecting north-eastern former stable block has a recessed entrance on its south-western side, with a central wooden seat and two separate doors originally leading into the scullery and stable wing.

Exterior: Other Elevations

The north-western side has a large projecting gable with a six-light mullioned-and-transomed window supported on three wooden brackets, and two wooden mullioned-and-transomed windows at ground floor level. The 1930s projection to the north-east is not of special interest.

The south-west side of the main house has three bays with a tall external brick chimneystack and a first floor three-tier, four-light oriel window on brackets under a projecting gable. The ground floor has two mullioned-and-transomed windows with ornamental wooden blind boxes and a half-glazed door.

The rear or north-western elevation of the main house has a tall ribbed brick chimneystack and an end channelled brick chimneystack. It is arranged in four bays with a left-hand three-light mullioned-and-transomed casement and two other smaller casements at first floor level. The ground floor has a four-light mullioned-and-transomed casement to the right side and an adjoining large porch with a mullioned-and-transomed bay under a tiled roof, the hip supported on wooden piers. Attached to the rear wall of the house is a carved stone tablet with a central sunflower flanked by the initials of the owners and the motto "DEUS HAEC OTIA FECIT / ANO DNI 1868" (God made this leisure / In the year of our Lord 1868).

Billiard Room Addition

Attached to the north-west is the single-storey former billiard room, built of brick in English bond with a tiled roof and a brick chimneystack to the north. The south-west side has a tile-hung gable and two tall three-tier, two-light windows with leaded lights. The north-west side has an oval window and a large flat-roofed porch with a five-light window and door case with a flat wooden hood and bracket. The north-east side has a projecting chimneystack, two casement windows, and a linking section with 20th-century windows.

The north-west side of the service wing is relatively plain, but there is a north-east gable with a large replacement window.

Interior

The hall retains a number of original five-panelled doors, but the staircase was removed in the 1930s and replaced by a bedroom. The former library and drawing room have interconnecting full-height panelled folding doors. The drawing room has a corner marble bolection-moulded fireplace with a wooden surround and corner moulded post, with shelving between two built-in panelled wooden window seats. The dining room has wide wooden ceiling beams and dado panelling. The principal feature is a large inglenook fireplace with an ogee arch and a wooden overmantel of seven panels, five with high-relief carving depicting ribbons, hearts, busts, and musical instruments. The cast-iron fireplace bears the motto "East or West Hame is best" (Home is best). The former billiard room retains original fielded panelling with a plate shelf and deep mullion detail to the south-west window. A window alcove has a wide beam with spandrels containing octofoil and dagger cutouts. The upper floor of the former stable wing has a visible plain arch and purlins.

History

The clients were George Lillie Craik (1837–1905), a Glasgow-trained accountant, and his wife, and the house cost just under £3,000. The Ordnance Survey map of 1868 shows the site was completely rural with no buildings before Corner House was built. The house was financed by the earnings of Dinah Maria Craik, née Mulock (1826–1887), a celebrated novelist. Her best-known novel, "John Halifax, Gentleman" (1856), was one of the 19th century's bestselling books, and Corner House was built on the proceeds. She also produced novels about women's issues, essays, travel narratives, poetry, translations, and, after the adoption of a baby abandoned in their parish, children's books including "The Little Lame Prince and his Travelling Cloak" (1875). Dinah Craik died of heart failure at Corner House on 12th October 1887 while preparing for her daughter's wedding, and is buried in Keston churchyard.

The fireplace at Corner House was mentioned in Charles Eastlake's "History of the Gothic Revival" (1872): "features of a similar kind may be seen at Glen Andred and in Mr Craik's house at Shortlands, both, for their size and in their respective ways, excellent examples of Mr Shaw's skill."

The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1896 shows Corner House with its billiard room addition. The footprint of the building changed little except for the demolition of some separate glasshouses to the south-west, and two service buildings are now in separate ownership and separately numbered (Nos. 110 and 112).

By 1939 the building had been converted into a number of flats. The building was requisitioned for the Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. It is currently divided into seven flats.