Restoration House Including Wall And Gatepiers Attached To Front

Restoration House on Crow Lane in Rochester is a large town house of Grade I importance. Possibly of late medieval origin, the building as it now stands dates from approximately 1588-1600, with major remodelling of the façade and interior undertaken in the mid-17th century. The house was occupied by Nicholas Morgan in the late 16th century and was conveyed in 1607 to Henry Clarke, who served as Recorder of Rochester from 1621 to 1628.

The house is constructed of red and brown brick, mainly in English bond and variants, with Kent tile roofs. It is two storeys with attics, arranged on a U-shaped plan with the hall, cross-passage and former services (with solar above) aligned north to south beneath the same roof. The north and south wings date from different periods, the south wing showing evidence of two or more builds.

The façade was elaborately refaced in the mid-17th century, possibly in the 1620s, with the addition of a porch. The front elevation is complex and would repay detailed analysis. The central section has five bays, with bays 1, 3 and 5 breaking forward. Bay 3, housing the porch, is wider and creates the illusion of centrality. Bays 1 and 5 contain stairs. A continuous moulded cornice runs across, with the parapet broken over the porch by a tall attic with a shaped gable. The gable window has a complex moulded cornice and plain surround. The porch features a giant order of pilasters, a round-headed doorway with a niche above, and rusticated ground floor detail. All first floor windows are set in raised and lobed architraves with rusticated aprons; ground floor windows have rusticated surrounds. Quoining runs to all angles. Some windows retain contemporary casements with transoms and mullions; others have hornless sashes in flush surrounds. The overall effect is energetic and oddly compressed between the wings.

The north and south wings are markedly asymmetrical. The north wing has a hipped roof and a front elevation with one 18th or 19th century window to each floor in flush surrounds with six, twelve and eighteen-pane hornless sashes. The inner face of the wing has two windows to all floors, those to the first floor bearing hood moulds; the smaller ground floor window originally lit an inglenook or side-passage. Moulded first floor strings return but do not connect with that of the central section. The south wing displays shaped gables both to the front and to the inner face of a secondary room placed in the angle formed by the hall and wing. Moulded string courses at first and attic levels return and include the secondary room. This secondary feature shows irregular fenestration and clearly pre-dates the hall range façade, which abuts it and cuts across one of its windows. The front of the south wing has mullioned and transomed windows to first and attic floors, and two large nineteen-pane sash windows to the ground floor.

The north elevation shows irregular fenestration with several early windows featuring mullions and transoms, some with diamond leading. A privy block with original roundel ventilators is present, along with a massive external stack to the end of the hall range. A later buttress (but probably 17th century) exists at the south end. Considerable brick patching is evident.

The rear elevation displays a five-window range with a massive external stack to the hall between bays 1 and 2. There are four hipped three-light dormers. First floor windows were replaced in the 18th and 19th centuries, all with twelve-pane hornless sashes in revealed frames; bays 1 to 3 have segmental arches. A continuous plat band runs at first floor level. Early windows with mullions and transoms light the ground floor and cellar to bays 1, 2 and 3. Bay 2 has a rear entry to the cross-passage with a 17th century decorated door in its surround and a two-light window above, served by an external flight of steps. The windows to the right hand are 19th century or later, one being a 4:12:4 tripartite sash. Evidence of a privy block and stack exists adjacent to the right hand. The south wing is set back considerably from the rear wall of the hall range and features a canted bay under an ogee leaded roof; a 2:4:2 first floor window with moulded mullions and transom; and a similar window to the ground floor with a later door punched through.

The front wall and gatepiers attached to the front of the house are included in this listing.

Interior: The former services to the left or north of the cross-passage were opened out in the 17th century to form the principal stair hall. The open-well stair has barley-sugar balusters, shaped pendants and square-section newels with timber ribbing beneath; a panelled dado was added later. A secondary service staircase with splat balusters occupies the west side, in bay 1 of the façade.

The hall displays four tiers of panelling to its walls. A large wooden overmantel with shaped pilasters and panels features strapwork and a dentil cornice. The stone fireplace has cyma mouldings and a 16th century profile with high-set stops.

The first floor principal bedroom, positioned where the former solar stood, is entered through an elaborate doorcase and has a panelled dado with paintings depicting scenes from Tennyson's version of the Aeneid, executed between 1874 and 1880 by Mr Aveling, who occupied the house and brought various fittings from elsewhere. The chamber above the hall has two tiers of full-height wall panelling and a carved fireplace surround with marble and gilded woodwork.

In the south wing, the ground floor rear parlour has six-tier panelling to two walls (with cornice showing strapwork and panels with pilasters) and larger panels elsewhere. An unusual fireplace surround features flanking terms representing war and peace. The front parlour has an overmantel with paired Corinthian columns. The interior was not fully inspected during the survey.

The house is noted in an article by Avray Topping on Rochester published in Country Life, volume 55, 1924, pages 358-362.