Former vicarage to the Church of St Michael Sutton Court

Former vicarage to the Church of St Michael Sutton Court

This is a former vicarage dating from around 1909, designed by William Douglas Caröe. It is a two-storey house with an attic level, built in red brick laid in English bond, with a hipped clay tile roof. A single-storey service block extends from the north side, constructed in Flemish bond. The building was designed roughly contemporaneously with the adjacent Church of St Michael Sutton Court, also by Caröe, and displays a combination of Arts and Crafts and Queen Anne/Neo-Georgian architectural styles.

The garden front is the most architecturally striking, arranged symmetrically with two bays. It features two large bow windows at ground floor level (one with an inserted door), separated by a decorative rainwater head, and two large small-pane casements at first floor level set beneath overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends. At roof level, a central pair of tile-hung dormer casements sits either side of a prominent chimney stack with a curved tile top.

The west entrance front is less regular, comprising three bays. It has a part-glazed front door with small-pane glazed surround, protected by a large carved wooden canopy with scrolled ironwork. Above the door is a small-pane casement, with two larger casements at ground and first floor levels to the left, whilst the wall to the right is blank. A dormer casement is also present. The north façade contains another prominent central chimney stack behind a central dormer casement, with the single-storey service block projecting from this front. The east façade has two small-pane casements on the ground and first floors, with a six-pane small casement positioned between the two first floor windows. All windows throughout have projecting tile and brick lintels. The service block is constructed in Flemish bond with plank doors and stylised leaf door furniture differing from that in the main house; this block may be a slightly later addition.

Internally, the layout follows the typical plan of Caröe's pre-1914 vicarage designs. The lobby is divided from the central hall by a part-glazed door and screen. A study adjoins the lobby with access from both lobby and hall, allowing parishioners to enter without passing through the main body of the house. Two spacious rooms (formerly drawing and dining rooms) occupy the other side of the hall, with a kitchen to the rear. The service block contains a scullery, pantry and various store rooms accessed via the kitchen. The lobby features a parquet-style clay tile floor matching those in the entrances to St Michael's Church.

The study retains red glazed tiles in the hearth, though its original fireplace has been lost. All doors opening from the hall feature distinctive diamond-shaped panels, a trademark of Caröe's work in other vicarages. An exception is an unusual three-panelled door under the stairs with one long panel and two short panels. The hall retains its original fireplace with green glazed tiles and stone mantelpiece; those in the drawing and dining rooms have been removed. Cornices, picture rails and dado rails survive in places. The utility room retains part-glazed cupboards (possibly a later addition), while the kitchen has lost its fireplace but retains a built-in cupboard. The service block throughout has plank doors with stylised leaf furniture, the scullery retains its simple fireplace, and the pantry preserves its original long slate worktop. A simple but fine open-well stick baluster staircase with moulded treads, ramped handrail and drop finials rises from the hall.

The upper floors follow the larger Caröe plan: four bedrooms on the first floor and three on the second. All first and second floor doors are of the three-panelled type noted above. Each bedroom retains its original fireplace. The most decorative are one on the first floor front with green glazed tiles in the hearth and red, green and blue square tiles surrounding the grate, and a rear bedroom on the same floor with a Delft tile surround. Second floor fireplaces are smaller with cast iron grates featuring a diamond motif. Dado and picture rails survive in places on the first floor. All windows throughout retain their decorative metal catches, executed in an Arts and Crafts interpretation of a late 17th-century and early 18th-century design.

William Douglas Caröe (1857–1938) was the senior architect to the Church Commissioners from 1895 until his death. Many of his commissions for new churches included associated vicarages or parsonages. This vicarage is contemporary with and designed by the same architect as the adjacent Church of St Michael Sutton Court.

The building represents an extremely complete example of an Edwardian vicarage of circa 1909 by W. D. Caröe, a prominent architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It skilfully combines Arts and Crafts and Queen Anne/Neo-Georgian styles, retains the typical Caröe vicarage plan form, and preserves a wealth of original internal fixtures and fittings, including his trademark diamond-panelled doors. It has strong group value with the adjacent Church of St Michael, which is contemporary in date and also by Caröe.