Bray Film Studios

BRAY WINDSOR ROAD SU 97 NW (north-east side, off) 10/27 Water Oakley 25.3.55 Bray Film Studios (formerly listed as Down Place) II

Large house beside the river Thames, now offices for film studios. Early C18, altered late C18, C19 and C20. Part brick, part painted render, render with incised horizontal joint lines on south front. Slate roof. Irregular plan. Part 2 storeys with cellar, part 2 storeys with attics. Chimneys now gone, those that remain are cut down to a low level. Mostly sash windows with glazing bars. Battlemented parapets. West wing: earliest part. Red brick with random blue headers, in Flemish bond. 5 bays. Moulded brick strings at first and second floors. Parapet. Slate mansard roof with 3 segmental-header roof dormers. 5, flush sash windows on first floor under segmental brick arches; 4 remaining on ground floor; the centre window having been replaced by a C20 flat- roofed square projection. North front: painted render with battlemented parapet concealing low pitched roof. 7 bays. Windows of 4th,5th and 6th bays on ground floor are in projecting rounded bay of one storey, surrounded by early C19 semicircular portico with fluted, Doric columns and plain entablature. On the right of this front and projecting forward at an angle is a smaller wing of 7 bays, 2 storeys and attics with 3 square-headed roof dormers. Battlemented except over centre bay. Windows on each side of centre bay are in large, projecting, rounded bays; centre window blocked on first floor. Ground-floor windows are tall casements with glazing bars. In the centre there is a doorcase of attached fluted columns with foliated capitals and plain entablature. The entrance is on the south front, which may have been re-faced in the C19. The entrance doors appear to be original and are half-glazed, with moulded and fielded bottom panels and original ironwork. On the south-east is an adjoining structure which may have been a chapel and is now 2 houses, listed separately (10/28). Interior: inside the west wing is an early C18 staircase with turned balusters, cut string with plaster enrichment to soffit. Fluted Ionic columns as newel posts. In the late C18 the house belonged to Richard Tonson, a descendant of Jacob Tonson and a founder of the Kit Kat club. The portraits by Kneller, of members of the Kit Kat club, were brought here fron Barn Elms, and a special room was added to house them. On Richard Tonson's death, the portraits passed to Mr Baker of Bayfordbury, Herts. They are now housed in the National Portrait Gallery. Bray Film Studios was formerly known as Down Place.

Listing NGR: SU9199877943