Holybrook House

Holybrook House

A large townhouse built around 1750–1760, later converted to offices in the late twentieth century. The building is constructed in red brick with wooden door surrounds and a stone parapet coping, beneath a slate tile roof throughout.

The house is arranged over three storeys with cellars and attic accommodation. The ground and upper floors have been subdivided into offices for six companies, though the original house plan remains broadly legible, particularly at ground-floor level where the four principal rooms are accessed from the central entrance hall. A substantial stack divides the front and rear rooms on the west side of the house, with a passage between the rooms along the west end of the stack, following the side passage arrangement down to the cellar. Two additional rooms are set to the east at both ground and first-floor levels. Access to the cellar originally came only from the rear southern elevation; the internal stairs down are a later insertion. The stairs between the first floor and attic accommodation at the front of the building are later replacements.

The principal façade facing Castle Street consists of five bays, symmetrically composed. The centrepiece features a six-panel door standing on a wide stone step approached by a modern path. The door is set within an arched opening with an elaborate scroll fanlight and a keystone carved with a head above. The moulded door surround has foliated enrichment in the spandrels; the whole is framed by large-scale Doric columns with block rustication. The columns support a moulded and ornamented entablature with a bay-leaf frieze and a dentilled pediment. Windows throughout are glazing bar sashes, with two pairs flanking the central door at street level and five across the upper floors. A moulded and bracketed cornice divides the upper-floor windows from the parapet. The hipped roof is partially screened from the street, with a modern top-lit attic. A lead conical rainwater head runs down the façade to the left of centre.

The rear southern elevation is slightly broader and of four storeys owing to the tapering plan and the site's incline to the north, which means the cellar level opens to the rear yard. The fenestration is offset marginally to the left, again arranged in five bays with glazing bar sashes. The central second-floor window to the stairs is elongated and has a round-headed brick arch. A projecting oriel addition with leaded glazing supported on two cast-iron columns stands to the left of the central door. A central flight of stairs with iron balusters leads up to the ground-floor entrance, which has a six-panel door recessed within a classical surround with a pediment and scroll brackets. The moulded and bracketed cornice beneath the parapet of the rear elevation matches that on the principal façade and returns to the corner of the west elevation, which is otherwise blank. An early brick wall section and outbuilding are attached to the eastern end of the rear elevation. The brick outbuilding has a six-panel side door and single-pitch slate tile roof.

Interior

The entrance hall retains much of its mid-eighteenth-century decorative scheme, with a bracketed cornice and an Ionic column screen leading through to a cantilevered open-string staircase. This rises to the first floor and features turned balusters, curved tread ends and a curtail step; the corresponding basement staircase is a later insertion. Four principal rooms on the ground floor are each accessed from the entrance hall. The best preserved is the south-eastern rear room, originally the music room, which has an ornate Rococo plaster ceiling with garlands and a central trophy featuring musical instruments in relief. The plasterwork is bordered with a complete bracketed cornice. Two doors with eared architraves and elaborate pediments featuring foliate scrolls open to the west. The narrower southern door has been blocked with no corresponding opening to the hall, presumably when the internal stairs to the cellar were inserted. The south windows have eared architraves to full height with splayed window shutter boxes.

The western rear room appears originally to have been a dining room. It features a panelled range with a moulded frame integrating a pair of fluted Ionic pilasters. A recessed section with a hatch opening beneath suggests this may have been a warming stove for meals brought up from the kitchen. A door with a moulded architrave and pediment is at the north end. Skirting and a dentilled cornice with a scrolled foliate frieze run consistently through the room. Fielded panelling extends to the threshold of the oriel window bay. The front western room connects to the rear room via a side passage against the former stack, which has simple moulded cornice, skirting and a dado rail. Chimney breasts to the ground-floor rooms remain, though all are blocked with no fire surrounds retained. The front eastern room was not inspected.

The first-floor staircase leads to an open landing with engaged Doric pilasters supporting an acanthus leaf cornice with garland frieze. Four rooms correspond broadly to the ground-floor arrangement. All retain their cornices, with dentils to the rear eastern room; those to the other rooms are simply moulded with matching dado rails. A later staircase has been built in the centre of the north range, rising to the second floor and attic accommodation. No specific historic fixtures of note survive to the second storey and attic. The cellar features barrel-vaulted bays to the north with two rooms containing substantial lateral beams to the south; one was presumably the former kitchen, though no cooking range or associated fixtures survive. The western cellar passage has a simple six-panel door to the rear yard with L-strap hinges. A matching door with glazed upper panels is set to the east of the external stairs.