Warbrook House

Warbrook House is a substantial country house built in 1727 by John James of Greenwich for his own residence. The original core of the building is a formal, symmetrical two-storey structure with an attic and a semi-basement, and presents three windows on its east and west elevations. The house is constructed with a stone frame featuring four plain pilasters that merge into a plain frieze at the top and a slightly projecting plinth at the bottom. A fully-moulded stone cornice runs along the top, stepped back and returned at the ends, surmounted by a pediment above the plain attic wall. This pediment contains a central stone-framed Venetian window. The exterior walls are of finely-joined bright red brickwork in a Flemish bond, highlighted by rubbed flat arches, plain stone keystones, and stone cills, with sash windows. A tall, stone doorframe with a moulded cornice resting on an architrave sits on a high plinth; two stone steps lead down to a stone pavement, which extends forward on a raised terrace ending in a flight of eight stone steps flanked by urns on square bases. The terrace continues along the front of the building, bordered by brickwork end walls.

The entrance hall features a plastered ceiling, wall panels above and below dado level, and formal groupings of panelled doors within architraves. An east-facing staircase rises within a two-story stairwell, also with plastered ceilings and panelling. Further interior features include folding interior shutters, turned and carved stair rails, decorative door furniture, a stone fireplace, and a white marble floor laid diagonally, with small black squares set diagonally at the corners of the flagstones.

The side elevations of the central block are plain with a deep second-floor band, a series of small attic windows (some being filled, others enlarged), and a small, pediment-shaped gable set between chimney stacks at each end, incorporating two flues linked by an arch. Later additions, dating from an unknown period, comprise two-story wings that begin as single-window units but extend as projecting blocks, two windows wide, across three faces, each with a gable. The wing elevations incorporate a parapet with a cornice below the coping, a second-floor stone band, a first-floor brick band, and a plinth. These wings have brick walls accented by plain, rusticated stone window surrounds and sash windows.

To the north, a long, two-story range of seven windows was constructed in 1936, matching the original brickwork style. The return end of this range, with a single window above a doorway, connects with an older stable block that has since been much altered. An 18th-century red brick wall, with piers at intervals, extends eastwards from the end of the north wing, creating a courtyard with the more recent additions.