26 The Avenue, Bickley

26 The Avenue, Bickley

A detached house built in 1892, designed in the earlier style of Ernest Newton and attributed to him.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in English bond, with tile hanging and clapboard cladding, and a plain tile roof that is hipped and gabled. It comprises two floors with attic and basement. The plan is organised so that rooms on the southern side are entered at a lower level than those on the north, via half landings. This mezzanine arrangement allows a raised semi-basement for service rooms on the northern side. Fireplaces are angled in the corners of the ground-floor rooms.

The south front facing The Avenue has a projecting canted bay of two storeys with a flat roof to the right. This bay has three casements to the front and single casements to the angles. To the left at ground-floor level is a semi-glazed door beneath a flat panelled hood supported on brackets. A basement window and ground-floor cross window with a pair of casements sit to the right of this. The first floor has two two-light casement windows with central mullions at right and centre. Above sits the upper floor of the canted bay, with a three-light attic window rising into the gable above it. The upper part of the gable is slightly jettied.

The ground floor and basement walling throughout the house is of brick, while the upper floors and gables are tile hung with flared lower ranks of tiles.

The western flank has an exposed chimney stack at the left, projecting slightly. To its left is a single-light ground-floor window. To the right of the stack are a basement door near centre, flanked by a single-light window and two two-light windows with cambered heads at the right. The ground, first and attic floors each have a central two-light casement. The roof is hipped on this side.

The north rear front has a wide square bay at the left, clapboarded to its upper body and supported at basement level by a pair of Tuscan columns with entasis. These columns have square concrete bases added later when the basement area was partially excavated to allow access from the house to the garden at this level. French windows were fitted at that time and the lower walling is rendered. The square bay has four-light windows to the front with single lights to the sides, except the first-floor eastern side which has a door that formerly led to a small balcony or stairway to the garden. To the right of the square bay is another bay with two-light casements to each floor, that at basement level having a cambered head. The attic has a wide central dormer with flat head and five lights.

The eastern flank has a brick stack at centre with a four-light basement window at right, which appears to be a twentieth-century addition.

Chimney stacks are prominent and retain their original height, each with a projecting band below the cap which is stepped out.

Interior

The entrance hall has a doorway with arched head leading to basement steps to the service area. The staircase has square newels, a mahogany handrail and substantial turned balusters with vase-shaped lower bodies. Doors are original, with two panels to the lower floors and four to the attic rooms. Ground and first-floor rooms retain their cornices and picture rails. Fire surrounds are in Georgian style with lateral pilasters and friezes in the reception rooms and of cast iron on the upper floors. The frieze between picture rail and cornice is of moulded paper or Anaglypta, with patterns showing in relief in three of the rooms, and this appears to be original. This decoration also appears beneath dado rails on the staircase.