Kew Palace Flats

This building represents an early use of stock brick, employing finely jointed stock brick construction with stone dressings, a hipped slate roof, and a timber eaves cornice. The principal east façade, which originally faced the White House, is built in Flemish bond and finished to a higher standard than the other elevations, which are in English bond.

Plan and Structure

The building is detached and roughly square on plan, organised across three main storeys with a raised principal floor, an attic storey, and a basement. It follows a formal plan typical of the early to mid-18th century. At each level, rooms are arranged symmetrically on either side of a wide central passage that leads from the entrance in the south elevation. This passage provided access to the kitchens in the basement and to offices and accommodation on the principal and upper floors. The staircase rises from basement to attic storey, with a single-flight ladder stair giving access to the roof space.

The Great Kitchen, which rises through two storeys, occupied the northern third of the building and had a separate entrance on the north elevation. At basement level, the kitchen and service rooms were symmetrically arranged around a central passage that originally opened into the Great Kitchen but was later blocked on the kitchen side. To the west were the scullery and bakery, and to the east, the silver scullery and larder.

Exterior

The east and west elevations are arranged in five bays with a 1:3:1 composition, the pedimented centrepiece breaking forward. The north elevation is also in five bays. Two tall brick stacks are positioned either side of the centrepiece.

The main entrance is centrally placed in the south elevation beneath a small canopy on moulded brackets, below a stair window. The front door has been modified but is of a design suggesting use in a high-status building, with six moulded, raised and fielded panels on the inner face; it is likely to have been reused from the White House. The kitchen entrance at the west end of the north elevation was later blocked and replaced by the current entrance at the eastern end of this elevation.

Windows on the principal floor are six-over-six pane sashes, mostly of early 19th-century date with slender glazing bars, some of later 19th- or early 20th-century date. The Great Kitchen windows were replaced in the early 19th century. However, one sash window on the east façade and one at basement level on the west elevation (scullery) retain heavy, ovolo-moulded 18th-century sashes and casements. Upper floor casement windows were replaced in the early 20th century. Many windows retain catches and stays. A pyramidal glazed lantern encloses the formerly open central well of the roof.

Interior: Principal and Attic Floors

The entrance opens into a broad stair vestibule. The lower flights of the stairs, to the basement and first floor landing, have stone treads, and a panelled dado corresponds with the moulded rail. Elsewhere it is a dog-leg, closed string stair and throughout has Tuscan newels and turned balusters, except on the first flight which has wrought iron stick balusters.

On the principal floor, early 18th-century entrances to the southern rooms from the stair vestibule have been blocked and later entrances cut through from the hall. At the northern end of the central lobby or hall on the principal floor is a rare example of a spice or store cupboard, with a wave-moulded slatted screen above a plain panelled partition and door.

The south-east room appears to have been subdivided and fitted with cupboards from an early date. There is evidence from lead drains that it was supplied with water. Chimneypieces in the two western rooms on the principal floor have original, moulded Portland stone surrounds. Although elsewhere chimneypieces and fireplaces are later 19th- or early 20th-century, most rooms have evidence of an earlier chimneypiece, seen as a silhouette on the wall, and of surviving hearths and skirtings.

On the upper floor, the central passage was subsequently divided to create two symmetrical flats, each with a narrow internal corridor. Original internal partitions remain and at the northern end of the corridors determine the arrangement at this end of the building. Again, evidence of original hearths and the profiles of original chimneypieces and possibly later cupboards remain.

Throughout the building, doors are of six plain panels in plain architraves, many with 18th- and 19th-century door furniture, including L hinges and rim locks.

Interior: Kitchens

The Great Kitchen was laid out in a highly symmetrical manner. It is dominated by a pair of large chimneybreasts against the south wall, either side of the entrance to the passage which was later blocked. The western chimney houses an 18th-century range and an octagonal oven, circa 1800, built into the side of the chimneybreast. Three charcoal stoves are built against the west wall.

The walls in the Great Kitchen retain undisturbed early finishes and colour which reveal evidence of the position of fittings, and therefore how the room was used. West and north walls, stripped bare because of later damp and rot, show equally important blocked openings and other alterations which reveal how the kitchens evolved. On the north wall is evidence of a pair of dressers, probably flanking a central entrance. On the east wall is evidence of charcoal stoves which mirrored the existing stoves on the west wall. Early 19th-century sash windows have their original glass and paint. Wear on stone flag floors also reveals the position of former fittings and the pattern of use in the kitchen.

The kitchen fittings include a rare Georgian range, typical of 1730-1790; a smoke jack, gear box and fan; a spit rack under the adjacent window; three charcoal stoves; an octagonal oven, circa 1800, inserted into the side of the chimney breast; a large, and probably the original, 18th-century kitchen table measuring 3.66 by 1.17 metres with an elm top; and early shelving on the internal south wall. The plan and fittings compare with contemporary accounts and illustrations of kitchens.

The kitchen initially connected to the internal passage by a doorway which was subsequently blocked. On the passage side, in a panelled frame, split level doors with a serving shelf, one door section re-hung upside down, remain in situ with early fittings and paint. Doors are moulded on the kitchen side and plain panelled on the passage side. To each side of the doorway is housing for lead water pipes which survive on the principal floor. These may connect with underfloor drains which run the length of the passage and branch off into the side rooms. Rooms and the passage have vaulted ceilings; walls and ceilings were lime washed. Floors throughout are stone flags.

The four ancillary rooms retain rare examples of 18th-century fittings. In the scullery (north-west) is a pine dresser or preparation table with Tuscan legs, which, based on its quality, probably dates from the 1730s; above it is a contemporary shelf. There is also a range in the chimney breast and an 18th-century copper. The bakery (south-west) retains two built-in pastry or baking ovens, one of which is a rare, intact example of circa 1730; a circa 1820 range and remains of a copper; and a large table with vase baluster legs and probably dating from the 18th or early 19th century. At a later period the room was used as a laundry.

The eastern two rooms also have chimneybreasts but fittings have been altered to the extent that their original use cannot be determined. The larder (south-east) has a series of hooks fixed to the ceiling joists suggesting its use as a meat larder; the north-east room was probably a silver scullery. The larder door is of six flush-moulded panels with slats in an upper panel for ventilation.

Under the stair is a small closet with an internal lock on the door.