40, Beeches Avenue

BEECHES AVENUE 1. 4430 CARSHALTON BEECHES TQ 2763 33/246 No 40 II 2. 2 storey, 2-bay house built 1903-4 for Frank Dickinson [1874-1961] to his own design; he also designed and mostly constructed the fittings of the interior. Very plain exterior; roughcast walls and green slate roof; northern bay projects forward and is gabled with 4-light window above and 5-light splayed bay window below. Southern bay is constructed at right angles to it with the roof descending low over the porch; 4-light dormer above; door with handsome letter box and side lights below. Interior is furnished completely in the prevailing styles of the Arts and Crafts at that time. Painted doors in vestibule; ornate door handles. In living room/sitting room carved beams showing owl, squirrels and rabbits over bay window of living room; carved beam in centre bearing on one side the inscription "Serve Humanity the Gods we know not" and on the other side representations of a fox in vine tendrils. Fireplace in living room has a "round red brick arch with hand painted tiles, each side framing the arch, above is a copper panel in hammered relief depicting a landscape with setting sun .... the whole is framed in polished red pine"; surmounted by a painted triptych. Panelling. Panelled staircase balusters pierced with heart motif. Sitting room fireplace with a Tudor arch in red brick and similar hand-painted tiles; "panel over arch in moulded plaster representing dancing nymphs and piping pans"; painted triptych. In the principal bedroom a fireplace with "hammered steel framing with slightly raised ornament all hand-wrought .... over which is a plaster panel representing a group from the famous picture "The Sleeping Beauty" by Burne-Jones, and inscribed with the title "How they all Slept" .... depicting sleepers at a loom" .... "the whole scheme framed in polished pine." [Quotations taken from autobiography of Frank Diakinson]. Listed on account of interior fittings. Gate-posts ornamented with motifs in same style; wooden gate with "Little Holland House" carved in ornamental letters, decorated bird-bath.

Listing NGR: TQ2748163389