The Grange And Attached Walls And Gate Piers

THE GRANGE AND ATTACHED WALLS AND GATE PIERS

A detached house on The Green, Rottingdean, built around 1740 and originally used as a vicarage until 1908. The house was extended by a range of two windows around 1800 by Dr Hooker, then significantly altered and enlarged by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1920 for Sir George Lewis.

The original roughly rectangular building, with its long front facing west, was transformed by Lutyens into a U-shaped plan. He added a wing to the north and extended the southern wing.

The entrance front is two storeys with seven windows, faced in stucco. The entrance is a flat-arched opening beneath a shallow porch with engaged antae, cast-iron Ionic columns and entablature, containing a doorcase with overlight and six-panelled door. The windows are flat-arched with plain architraves (those on the ground floor having ears), keystones and shutters. The ground-floor windows have been lowered; two north of the entrance are French windows, while the northernmost and two southernmost contain triple 6/6 sashes. First-floor windows retain sashes of original design. A coved eaves cornice with rosettes runs beneath a two-span roof with a ridge stack. The left-hand return is faced with cobbles with brick dressings.

The eastern rear elevation features a gabled wing to the north faced with flint and cobbles with brick quoins and dressings, French windows to the ground floor, tumbled-in gable and one corniced dormer. The rear of the main range is faced with cobbles with brick dressings, with two corniced dormers. All sashes on the rear elevation have frames set almost flush with the wall and thick glazing bars. The rear wings create a courtyard with slate paving and two flights of slate steps set on edge at the east side, formerly leading into the garden. The courtyard's south side contains a three-storey weatherboarded range under a lean-to roof, ending in a brick and flint wing.

The south front displays the gables of the two-span roof, slightly rearranged by Lutyens with a corniced dormer between them. This section is faced with render and smooth render, with a lower range to the east. A flat-roofed extension lies south of the two-span gables, connected to various single-storey outbuildings.

Interior features remaining from Lutyens' work include a round arch to the vestibule with pilasters, archivolt, keystone, panelled spandrels and dentil cornice. Panelling runs along the south side of the hall and in the southern section of the present public library. The library has pilasters and columns at its north-eastern end. An open well stair retains a replacement newel, turned balusters, moulded rail and panelled dado.

The property is bounded by garden walls of flint with brick coping: approximately 15 metres of wall north of the entrance gate piers, and approximately 22 metres south of the gate leading into Whiteway Lane. The entrance gate piers are square with corniced tops.