254, Petersham Road

PETERSHAM ROAD, 254

House of 1925 designed by E. Blunden Shadbolt, reusing materials from the home of Sir William Whorne of 1487 from Cuxton, Kent. The brick stacks were rebuilt in 2000. The building is timber-framed with red-brown brick nogging, some laid in herringbone pattern, tile hanging, brick stacks, and tile roofs. The plan is irregular, revolving around a lounge hall. The building is two and two and a half storeys.

On the entrance front, to the right of the entrance is a pair of diminishing gabled bays, the left one jettied. The entrance is set at an angle against a stair window rising through two storeys. To the left is a gabled cross wing of two and a half storeys. A lower two-storey gabled jettied wing is set forward with a small glazed tiled-roofed gazebo above the first storey and a catslide roof over the ground floor bay window, visually intercepting the gable to the right. A single-storey service wing projects to the left.

On the garden front, there is a gabled cross wing to the left of two and a half storeys, with the roof sweeping down to include the hall entrance under a porch. An attic dormer with tile-hung flanks sits on the right slope. A ground floor bay window has eight lights with two-light returns, supported on slender rough-hewn brackets. Above is a first-floor seven-light oriel and a three-light attic casement. To the right is a two-storey gabled bay with a timber loggia on a brick plinth supporting the upper floor with a four-light window. The central section is two storeys with the ground floor mostly glazed and also under a separate tile roof. The return elevations each have an external offset stack with small flanking windows. The tall stacks rise to the ridge, and those set between gables, are of multiple shafts, usually three, set diagonally.

The garden front porch is of reused timbers dated 1487 on a brick plinth. The outer door has a shaped head with an applied studded frame and robust iron door furniture, including a bell pull. A similar door is found on the north elevation. A pair of glazed doors to the dining room have probably been replaced. The windows are timber mullion or mullion and transom, with ranges of metal-framed casements and fixed lights, the upper lights mostly with four-centre arched form. There are diamond-leaded lights, some with armorial coloured glass. The stair window rises through two storeys with deep transoms and fixed lights of diamond-leaded glazing, some inset with smaller diamond panes, and the upper lights contain three armorial panels. The single-storey service wing is internally now one space, with replaced aluminium-framed external doors.

The interior features a lounge hall rising through two storeys with a gallery at first-floor level. Internal partitions and roof structure are exposed. The gallery balustrade has square newels with carved wedge finials and downward arch braces from the newels to transverse beams, with rectangular chamfered balusters and a rectangular bracket with enriched stop. A dog-leg stair has a similar balustrade. A pair of inglenook fireplaces on the north-west and south-west elevations of the lounge hall sit in brick-nogged inglenooks under four-centred arched bressumers, each with a brick canopy and tiled hearth within an oak frame. Small flanking windows, some with coloured glass, flank each fireplace, with an inglenook seat flanking the north fireplace. Similar fireplaces appear in the dining room and principal bedroom. The ground floor study and first-floor bedrooms have exposed brick chimney breasts with arched brick openings and a panel of herringbone brickwork above, except in the study. These have tiled hearths within oak frames. The principal bedroom gallery has balusters similar to those on the main landing.

Oak doors throughout the house, some with four-centred arched heads and applied studded stiles and muntins, some with diagonally-laid boards, all feature iron door furniture. Cupboards, particularly in the lounge hall, bedrooms, and dressing room, all have iron door furniture. Those in the lounge hall, landing, second bedroom, former servant's bedroom, and dressing room have cocks' head hinges, others have strap hinges. The lounge hall and principal bedroom have window seats, possibly modified from the original.

This is a fine published example of the work of E. Blunden Shadbolt, creator of many characterful pastiches of southern English vernacular, incorporating some historic fabric.