Summer House

787/0/10119 THE GROVE 09-AUG-02 (Off) Summer House

II

Summer House at Spring Grove House

Summer House. C.1894. Attributed to W.B. Catherwood. Painted brick with wooden facing, wooden verandah, encaustic tiles to floor, tiled roof, raised on a platform of brick and stone. A rectangular, single storey bungalow. EXTERIOR: Wooden verandah running on all four sides, supporting a shallow pitched roof with deep eaves. These are carried on twisted wooden columns with three pairs of consoles at the junction with the eaves, with scalloped valance to outer face. Undersides of eaves are panelled. Gables to centre of north, east and west sides, decorated with cartouches within strapwork surrounds. Railings to each side, with a mixture of X-shaped and square section supports. Openings at corners and centre of each side. Inner building has splayed angles, six-panel door to centre of south side. Projecting four-light windows to east and west sides. North side decorated with arcade, decorated with grotesque masks in heads of arches; this motif repeated either side of the door. Moulded cornice and string course at cill level. INTERIOR: Large architectural chinmney-piece in French Renaissance style, with segmental termination; mosaic surround to fireplace, with marble slips and shouldered frame. Foliate brackets either side of pyramidal chimney-breast. Banquette with fielded panels to backrest; in-situ cupboards flank chimney-breast. HISTORY: built for the soap magnate Andrew Pears as part of his embellishment of Spring Grove House; Catherwood designed the lodge, which shares some stylistic similarities with this structure. A well-preserved and richly decorated example of the genre.