Coach House And Stables At Hillside

Coach house and stables, probably built in 1868 by the architect Robert Louis Roumieu, who also designed the now-ruined main house. The complex was commissioned by Thomas Francis Blackwell of Crosse and Blackwell for his daughter-in-law Mrs Charles Blackwell and her daughters.

The buildings are constructed in red brick with blue brick banding, stone kneelers, and roofs of alternating plaintile and fishscale tiles (some replaced with corrugated sheeting). They feature diagonally boarded timber doors, cast iron and timber stable fittings, and Dutch tile flooring.

The structures form an informal picturesque group arranged around two sides of a yard facing south-east and overlooking the drive. The northern range comprises a two-storey coach house with the coachman's house above it, and to the north a single-storey stable block of looseboxes. To the south are further loose boxes, possibly formerly a cart house and storage. The west range is a single-storey structure now used as loose boxes and storage. Attached to the north of the coach house and stables is a single-storey barn.

The coach house, stables and barn all have shaped gables with stone kneelers, with the coach house and stables displaying flush blue brick banding. The carriage doors are diagonally boarded; the left-hand door is said to be replaced and has a glazed upper panel, with both doors fitted with long strap hinges. To the right, a door and window feature flush pointed arches of alternating red and blue brick, with the door having a plain overlight. Above are tall loading doors similar to the carriage doors and a two-over-two-pane sash window. The stables to the north-east have a single split stable door, diagonally boarded. The stables to the south-west have a pair of split doors and a pair of single doors, also diagonally boarded. The west range is simply fitted with stable doors and displays a shaped southern gable. To the rear of the coach house, the attached barn resembles the loosebox range and features a pitch hole in each gable.

The interior loose boxes contain cast iron posts and timber partitions and linings, with Dutch tile floors.

Robert Louis Roumieu (1814–1877) trained under Benjamin Wyatt and formed the partnership Roumieu and Gough. Their diverse work included the austere neoclassical Milner Square in Islington (1839–44), the Almeida Theatre in Islington (1837–8), and the gothicising of Barry's St Peter's Church in Islington in the mid-1840s. Roumieu served as surveyor to the French Hospital Estate, building in Hackney in 1865, and to the Hawley Charity estate.

The second daughter of the family occupied Hillside until her death in 1955. The site survives complete with the shell of the house and stables, together with the layout of the drive and some original planting, which compare well with the 1896 Ordnance Survey map. The stables and coach house enclosed the northern side of the approach to the house. Photographs from 1969 and 1973 show the stark Gothic shell of the house with shaped gables and a conical-roofed turret, now heavily overgrown within remnants of late-19th-century planting, with the fabric severely depleted. To the east of the stables stands a detached building in similar style, also shown on the 1896 Ordnance Survey map.