25, Frances Road

Detached house at 25 Frances Road, Windsor, built in 1888 in the Domestic Revival style. Designed by architect Thomas Edgington for his own residence. The building has undergone twentieth-century alterations and additions, particularly to the west and south.

The house is constructed in red and yellow brick with tile hanging and tile roofs. Its plan is broadly triangular, occupying the corner plot between Frances Road and Grove Road, with two storeys. The main north elevation takes full advantage of its prominent street corner position, comprising three bays across two storeys. At first-floor level there is tile hanging. Two gabled bays with decorative barge boards flank a central entrance bay topped by a gabled dormer. Access is through a handsome panelled front door with a pair of integral glazed arched lights (now with replacement glass, formerly of stained glass) flanked by stained glass windows. These are topped with moulded brick drip moulds featuring stone shield label stops.

The exterior is ornamental throughout, employing diaper work, tile hanging, decorative barge boards, finials, and terracotta and brick plaques. An external chimney stack projects from the west elevation. The west and east façades are similar to one another, each with tile hanging at first-floor level and diaper work below. Side and rear windows vary in form, including flat brick, canted and arched brick heads with brick or stone cills. Windows to the main north façade are more consistent, being mainly timber casements of several lights with projecting timber surrounds to the upper floors.

A plainer rear block in yellow brick is contemporary with the main house. A modern conservatory has been added to this section. Further twentieth-century additions and alterations to the south-west, where the former service area has been modified for modern needs, are of lesser architectural interest. From the south garden side, the curious triangular shape of the house becomes evident, presenting an interesting roofscape with decorative chimneys. Late twentieth-century works have incorporated former outbuildings, such as the coal shed, into the accommodation, with a twentieth-century extension to the west and a conservatory to the south; these later works are of lesser interest.

The interior is entered through the north façade into a triangular hallway with an attractive tiled floor. An original timber staircase features solid carved newel posts and turned balusters. Both the hall and upstairs landing have an attractive sequence of shallow arches leading through to the rooms beyond. Bedroom ceilings also display a curved profile. Despite sympathetic modernisation, the interior retains many original features. Many ground-floor rooms have simple moulded cornices and deep skirting boards with boarded wooden floors. Evidence remains for former gas lamp fittings. Most fireplaces survive with fire surrounds in a variety of materials; some are tile-decorated or feature decorative ironwork. The fireplace in the music room is unusual, being of brick and tile in a style leaning more towards the Arts and Crafts movement. A large cast-iron range survives in the former kitchen, with an adjacent pantry featuring a tiled floor. Windows and doors are largely original, retaining decorative brass handles and finger plates. Late nineteenth-century built-in cupboards survive in some bedrooms.

The narrow front garden retains a partial survival of the original paved brick surface. A decorative low brick wall, contemporary with the house and in the form of a pierced balustrade, stands at the junction of the two roads. Matching gate piers frame a pedestrian gate at this corner junction.

The date of 1888 is confirmed by a tri-partite decorative plaque positioned to the right-hand side of the front door. This area of Windsor was first developed in the later nineteenth century. The house passed through the family with very little alteration until the early 1970s, when it was sold and subject to some modernisation. Thomas Edgington (born 1820) came to Windsor in 1852 and established the architectural firm of Edgington & Son in the town in 1856. His commissions included work at Windsor Castle. Herbert Spink and Reginald Hyne became partners in 1907 and 1955 respectively, with the practice subsequently renamed Edgington Spink Hyne as it remains today. In the early twentieth century the practice gained a reputation for high-quality brick buildings including a number of banks and public houses, with many examples of such work found in East Berkshire; the former Barclays Bank at Packhorse Road, Gerrards Cross (1911-12) is listed at Grade II.