Pond Cottage

Pond Cottage is a detached, two-storey house in the Tudor Revival style with Arts and Crafts influences, built in 1926 to designs by architect Blunden Shadbolt.

The house is constructed of red and brown brick with exposed timber framing and a plain clay tile roof. The plan is roughly T-shaped, with a long principal range oriented north-west to south-east, one room deep, containing a living room and dining room (latterly used as a study) divided by an irregular hallway and central staircase. A central cross-wing projects from the north-east elevation and houses a kitchen and WC at ground floor level, with a bathroom and separate WC on the first floor. A garage occupies the south-east part of the ground floor within the house envelope. A small lean-to extension to the south-east elevation originally housed a coal store. A secondary staircase rises from the kitchen and provides sole access to a maid's bedroom, which is otherwise separated from the three bedrooms occupying the rest of the first floor. All main rooms are irregularly shaped with various alcoves, sloping ceilings, and inglenook and corner fireplaces.

Externally, the house is of two storeys with timber framing and red, yellow and brown brick nogging laid in herringbone, basket-weave and random bonds. The first floor is slightly jettied in parts of the north-west and north-east elevations. The principal range has a hipped roof with a gablet to the north-west slope, and gables rise from the north-east and south-west elevations. Fenestration largely comprises side-hung metal casements in timber frames with leaded glazing in a diamond pattern and occasional panes of coloured glass.

The north-east (front) elevation facing Pinner Hill has a prominent gable end to the projecting cross-wing with a protruding chimney stack featuring a tiled offset. The centre of the gable has a row of five casement windows at first-floor level, with another row at ground-floor level set off to one side. To the south, a timber garage door occupies the ground floor with a small casement window to one side and two more above. Adjacent to the south-east is the coal store in a lean-to extension with a board-and-batten door featuring iron strap hinges. The south-east return wall of the cross-wing has a similar plank-and-batten door accessed by stone steps leading to the kitchen. The principal entrance is on the opposite return wall of the cross-wing, covered by an open gabled porch supported on a pair of tree trunks with arched braces. The northern half of this elevation has a gabled half-dormer with a pair of casement windows at first-floor level and a row of five casement windows below.

The north-west elevation has a protruding chimney stack with a tiled offset to one side and a row of three casement windows at first-floor level to the other. A decorative S-shaped tie plate is present on the stack. The south-east elevation has a pair of casement windows to the first floor and a single narrow window to the ground floor. The south-west elevation, facing the garden, has a prominent central gable flanked asymmetrically by brick chimney stacks of different sizes. The gable and stacks project slightly from the elevation with irregular tiled offsets and S-shaped tie plates. A row of six casement windows, arranged in a shallow bow beneath a large timber lintel, spans the gable at first-floor level. Below this is a loggia formed by a tiled canopy carried on timber brackets and supported by a pair of brick piers. One half of this canopy has had glazing inserted, probably in the late 20th century. Two sets of French doors lead to the living room and dining room. Other ground-floor windows comprise casements of various sizes, and there is a single triangular window to the first floor set against a timber tension brace.

The principal entrance opens into an irregular hallway leading to the three main ground floor rooms. The largest is the living room, which has two inglenook fireplaces beneath gnarled bressummers with corbelled-out brickwork rising to a tapered chimney breast in Shadbolt's customary style. There is fielded timber panelling below the windows and exposed structural beams to the ceiling. The dining room, latterly used as a study, has another similar inglenook fireplace and a built-in cupboard with an oak plank-and-batten door. Some ceiling beams in this room have empty mortices indicating their historic use in an older building. The kitchen has modern cabinets but retains the original larder door and brick fire surround above the kitchen counter. Adjacent to the kitchen is a toilet and a narrow staircase, lit by a small window in the south-east wall, rising to what would originally have been the maid's bedroom. The principal staircase stands between the living room and dining room, accessible from both. It has roughly-carved newel posts, handrails and balusters flanking the first three steps, after which the staircase is walled on both sides with exposed timbers and some match-boarding to one side.

Upstairs, the maid's bedroom has a sloped ceiling and an alcove with a small dais and a corner fireplace, now bricked up. The two central bedrooms are divided by the staircase wall which extends up to the bow window on the south-west elevation, splitting it across both bedrooms. The south-east bedroom has a brick fireplace with a timber mantel-shelf wrapping around one corner. This room also hosts an electric hoist lift which rises from the dining room through a small opening cut into the floor. The middle bedroom has a brick fireplace with a timber mantelshelf and ceiling with machine-cut timbers painted white. The north-west bedroom has a brick fireplace with a timber mantelshelf and over-mantel with glazed cupboard doors and display shelves behind. In the cross-wing, the bathroom and separate toilet have been modernised but the bathroom retains the original built-in linen cupboard with plank-and-batten doors with H hinges.

All internal doors are of oak plank-and-batten construction with iron H or HL hinges, string-operated timber latches and idiosyncratic doorknobs of moulded timber. All rooms are asymmetrical and irregular with alcoves, inglenooks and sloping ceilings.

The rear garden has two small sunken gardens bordered by low drystone walls and intersected by a raised path extending from the patio adjacent to the house, all covered with crazy paving. These are original features visible on an aerial photograph taken in 1927.