Gable Cottage (Including Attached Walls)

Gable Cottage, originally a coachman’s house, was built in 1870 by George Devey, with a late 20th-century porch addition. The cottage is constructed of red brick in mixed bonds, featuring diaper patterning using blue brick. The upper storey is pebbledash rendered, the gables are tile-hung, and the roof is tiled. A brick storey band runs around the building. It is a one-and-a-half-storey building. A large external brick stack, also in diaper pattern and incorporating a slender band above the eaves, is a prominent feature. The stack has three vertically arranged rectangular shafts, which were reportedly rebuilt, but to the original design. A half-nipped dormer window, with a two-light diamond-paned casement, is also present. Ground-floor windows are three-light casements, and the entrance includes altered glazed doors. A gabled porch, attached to an unaltered gabled wall, provides the north entrance. A four-light casement window is on the ground floor, and a similar three-light casement is on the upper floor, beneath a tile-hung gable with alternating plain and fishscale patterns. Similar details are visible on the south gable. A small gable with a diamond-paned window is on the Beverley Lane elevation, corresponding to a break in the brickwork and following the natural ground level. A tall curtain wall with a shaped parapet, partially swept, transitions into a garden wall. A small inset window and a vestigial stack are also part of the wall. An arched doorway leads to a simple plank door, beyond which a twenty-metre-long brick wall continues in a similar style, but without the diaper patterning. Gable Cottage and Warren Close stand on either side of the original entrance to Coombe Warren, which was built by George Devey in 1870 for Bertram Wodehouse Currie MP and demolished in 1926. The two structures form a picturesque group and are fine examples of Devey's skill in estate cottage design.