Eastgate House

Eastgate House is a substantial late Elizabethan town house, now used as a museum. The main structure dates from 1590–1, built by Sir Peter Buck, Clerk of the Acts in the Navy Board, with extensions and refurbishment in the 17th century. It is possible that some earlier work is incorporated into the building.

Construction and Materials

The main range is built of brick, with the side elevation and rear wings constructed in brick and timber framing. Some rubble ragstone is also present. The roofs are covered with Kent tiles.

Plan and Original Layout

The removal of internal partitions in the 19th century and the likely demolition of a range to the east make reconstruction of the original plan uncertain. The ground floor hall was entered through a porch on the south side, probably into a through passage, with opposing entries still in place though the screen has been removed. To the left (west) of the hall was one room with high-status chambers above, served by a south-facing stair turret. This turret forms an important element in the main front, though both turret and western rooms appear to belong to a slightly different building programme from the main range, as evidenced by changes in plinth details. These rooms are largely timber-framed, and the side (west) elevation, with much jettying, forms a secondary show front towards the street.

To the right of the hall is another room. A long set of windows in the rear wall, along with a rubble plinth, extend beyond the line of the present east end wall into what is now a low lean-to. This indicates that the house originally extended further to the east. Until the addition of 17th-century stairs (situated to the rear of the former through-passage and contained within one of three separately gabled wings, all of the same date), it is difficult to see how the upper floors at the east end of the house were adequately served. It is probable that the now-demolished eastern part of the house contained a second south-facing stair turret balancing the surviving one, thereby forming a roughly symmetrical south front.

Exterior

South Front

The south front has three storeys and an attic and is asymmetrical. The two-storeyed porch has a hipped roof and is flanked by a gabled bay. The porch has first floor windows to the south and east (two lights with double-ovolo moulded brick surrounds, mullion and transom). The doorway has a pediment with pilasters on panelled plinths. The stone four-centred arch has shields in the spandrels and large bar stops set high.

Each bay has a tripartite window arrangement. Two-light windows to each floor connect with a central three-storeyed projecting bay—polygonal to the left, canted to the right—giving continuous glazing across the wings. All windows have timber mullions, transoms and surrounds, though most of the woodwork is renewed.

To the left, the polygonal stair turret has single-light windows under cambered arches, all with moulded brick, moulded string-courses between floors, and a projecting gabled roof. Further left is the plain end wall of the street front in plain brick, but containing a plaque with the heraldic device of the Buck family and a two-light window under a hood mould to the ground floor.

High Street Elevation

The High Street elevation has three storeys and an attic, all jettied, with two gables. The brick end wall is corbelled and moulded with a decorative zigzag vertical strip to the first floor. An uninterrupted fourteen-light ground floor window with king mullion is set high under the jetty. Similar arrangements appear on the first and second floors, but here broken by—at first floor level—a seven-light oriel on console brackets and—on the second floor—two three-light oriels. These long ranks of windows are set very high to each floor, presumably intended to light the fine plaster ceilings (see interior). The gable walls have two-light windows, decorated bargeboards, and apex pendants.

To the left is the side wall of the west rear wing, which is considerably later (as evidenced by a masonry joint and absence of plinth). This is brick, two storeys, with four-light windows to each floor (that to the first floor slightly projecting). The windows have diamond leading and there is a string course.

Rear

The rear has three gabled wings with half-hipped upper storeys and attics. The first floor has two-, three- and four-light windows (that to the east wing with large mullions, lighting stairs), and the gable walls have two-light windows.

Interior

Although considerable amounts of woodwork, including the porch inner door, have been brought from elsewhere, there is some fine plasterwork, and the stone fireplaces appear to be in their original positions.

Hall

The hall has wall panelling and a fire surround with pilasters. The panelled overmantel has caryatids (not in their original position) and there are inserted ceiling beams. Doorways have cyma-moulded surrounds and bar stops set high.

Right-Hand Room (Ground Floor)

The right-hand room has ovolo-moulded ceiling beams, wall panelling, and a fireplace with a stone surround with pulvinated frieze. The Jacobean overmantel is not in its original position.

Stairs

The open-well stairs date from the 17th century and have turned balusters and square-section newels with finials.

First Floor

The right-hand room has a dentil cornice, some panelling, and a simple fire surround with fluted pilasters. The chamber above the hall has a fine fire surround (not in its original position) with fluted term pilasters and an elaborate panelled overmantel. There is wall panelling throughout. Between these two rooms is a pierced wooden panel designed to distribute borrowed light; evidence for others exists elsewhere.

Western Rooms

The most significant interiors are in the western rooms, where good plaster ceilings survive to all floors. These are single-ribbed with a variety of geometric patterns (quatrefoils, diamonds, squares, etc.) with stylised foliage and heraldic devices. The heraldry (and a rebus on the second floor) indicate that they date from Buck's time (the 1590s) and as such are a remarkable set of early plasterwork ceilings. Stone fireplaces with four-centred arches are dated 1590 and 1591.

Attic

In the attic is some simple line-drawn patternwork on plaster, with much remaining to be exposed.

Roof

The roof has side purlins. The High Street range is separately roofed.

Group Value

The single-storeyed three-window range to the rear of Eastgate House and the two-storeyed three-window range with which it connects (Charles Dickens Centre) are included in this listing for group value only.