Four Corners, Upper Warren Avenue, Caversham

Four Corners is a two-storey detached house with attic and basement garage, built in the Art and Crafts style. It stands on Upper Warren Avenue in Caversham, elevated on a raised brick terrace that wraps around the building and overlooks the south garden with views down to the River Thames.

The house is cruciform in plan and constructed of hand-made red brick laid in Stretcher bond, with some English bond detailing to the entrance loggia on the north elevation. It features stone mullions, buff brick and tile detailing, and a clay tile roof.

The south garden elevation is tripartite in composition, with a set-forward gabled bay flanked by gabled wings. All three sections share a consistent architectural vocabulary, with sprocketed eaves to their clay tiled roofs, empty niches in the gables, and a variety of stone-mullioned windows with leaded lights and tile sills. Each first-floor bedroom has an oriel corner window, a feature repeated at the north-west and north-east corners of the building. The first floor of the central bay overhangs the ground floor and is supported on brick piers, containing a four-light window within a buff and red brick panel. Beneath this is a ground-floor semi-circular bay with central French windows, also with leaded lights. The composition of this elevation is otherwise symmetrical, apart from a single tall brick chimney stack positioned at the junction of the principal range and the east wing.

The north elevation features three gables in the same style. Here the first-floor windows to the central range are treated more simply, with a pair of single-light casements flanking a three-light mullioned window. Below lies a loggia with an arcade of three semi-circular arches, approached by a shallow step decorated with attractive tilework. The loggia provides weather protection to the main entrance, which has a wide solid-plank door. This elevation is entirely symmetrical, with a pair of chimneys at the junctions with the wings. This symmetry, combined with the loss of a chimney evident from the south elevation, suggests the original design may have intended matching chimneys on both principal facades.

The interior remains remarkably intact, though not fully inspected. Photographs indicate wood panelling and panelled doors throughout, understood to be stained oak, together with original light fittings in the dining room, original light switches, and pewter door furniture. A distinctive motif appears on interior and exterior fittings: four cut-out squares on pewter plates with the holes embellished with leather. The staircase features stick balusters and substantial square-section tall newel posts.

The stone-flagged upper terrace has two flights of steps to the south-west and south-east, with raking buttresses supporting its red brick retaining walls and a decorative brick balustrade. At each of the four corners of the terrace stood large terracotta urns made by the Compton Pottery, established near Guildford by Mary Watts (1849–1938). At least one survives, decorated with floral swags. A large elliptical niche in the centre of the south elevation provides a sheltered garden seat with brick benches.

A further semi-circular south terrace lies on the same axis, also stone-flagged, with a red brick retaining wall and balustrade matching the upper terrace in style. At its centre is a brick-lined pool divided into quarters, with a decorative terracotta column at the centre, possibly a former fountain or sundial, decorated with Celtic interlace beasts and scrollwork. A stone bench on this terrace has terracotta legs with similar interlace decoration. On stylistic grounds, these latter features are presumed also to be by the Compton Pottery.