Spencely House, original hard landscaping and swimming pool changing hut

Spencely House, original hard landscaping and swimming pool changing hut

House, 1936, built to designs by Hugh Castle Greville Spencely. The builders were E H Burgess.

The house is constructed of brown and red brick laid in Flemish garden wall bond—three brown stretchers to one red header. Doors and windows are teak.

The building is two storeys with a flat roof and an L-shaped plan. The front range runs north to south with the entrance on the east side and a segmentally curved end wall to the south. An east-west range adjoins at the rear to the north end; a small curved single-storey extension of 21st-century date has been added at the west end. An attached garage and walled courtyard stand to the north of this range.

As originally designed, the internal plan divided principal reception rooms, hall and bedrooms in the north-south range, with children's and service rooms and a service stair in the east-west range, with some overlap at the junction between the two. The plan remains little altered.

The exterior features spare, asymmetric elevations and undressed window openings in horizontal rows, creating an overall Modern character. However, the brickwork character and overhanging eaves draw on established building patterns, and formal elements are suggestive of historical precedents.

Enrichment comes mainly from shaped bricks and the bonding pattern, which creates a subtle vertical stripe. Bull-nosed bricks are used at the building corners and there is a shallow modillion course at the eaves. Window lintels are concealed behind brickwork; sills are formed of three layers of clay tile.

The entrance front has a door positioned off-centre to the right, surrounded by a brick roll-moulding and wide stepped brick architrave. Above is a flat leaded canopy with saw-tooth leadwork valance bearing the inscription: G S & P S MADE ME 1936. The door is teak with eight etched glass panels, each bearing a bittern motif—the adopted crest of the Spencely family. Off-centre to the left is a wide shallow external chimney stack with stepped bull-nosed corners. The first floor has a row of six casements; the ground floor has two small casements to the left of the door and a large five-light casement to the right.

To the rear, the two ranges enclose a garden terrace to the north and east. They meet with a curved full-height hall window held in a mullion and transom frame. A pair of sliding glass doors pull back into the wall cavity, opening from the drawing room onto the east side of the terrace, with a brick roll-moulding and stepped brick architrave. Glazed doors to the north are a 21st-century addition.

The curved south wall has a small plinth above the drawing room window that formerly held a bronze statue of a small boy holding a shell and fish by sculptor James Woodford, said to be a portrait of Hugh, one of Spencely's sons. The sculpture has been lost.

The interior retains considerable original fittings and fixtures, including mahogany joinery and polished Roach stone window sills. Panel radiators are set within wall alcoves. Skirtings are low with simple plaster covings at wall heads.

The most striking fixture is the main staircase, straight with a quarter turn towards the bottom, situated within an open well and lit by the full-height curved corner window. The staircase, balustrade and handrail are mahogany, with risers slanted slightly to increase tread depth. The open string features mahogany and sycamore banding creating a zig-zag effect. The sinuous balustrade, continuing onto the galleried landing, is formed of three parallel rails held by posts on every third step, capped by a moulded handrail that curves downward at the base of the straight flight to form a newel.

A glazed screen with etched glass panels separates the stair hall from the entrance lobby. The glass panels have botanical designs and monograms of Spencely and his wife, designed by Marjorie V Duffel. Ten-panel raised and fielded doors lead from the stair hall to the drawing room, dining room and service areas. Console shelves are positioned above each of the two stair hall radiators.

Beneath the stair, a plain door leads to a study lined with vertical deal boards and with an electric fire in a veined marble surround. Built-in cupboards are a later addition. The dining room has a built-in sideboard designed by Spencely and made by cabinet maker Peter Van der Waals. The floor is carpeted with a cork margin around the edge.

The original kitchen, larder and pantry have been opened up with some reconfiguration and extension of the former maids' room, boiler room and fuel store. These areas retain some original joinery and fittings.

On the first floor, doors are flush-panel with some original built-in storage cupboards. There have been minor plan alterations but the arrangement essentially survives as built. A dumb waiter in the east-west range connects what was formerly the nursery and children's bedrooms with the kitchen below. The service stair in the north-east corner has a solid balustrade with hardwood handrail.

The interior combines simple, pared-down elements with those of richer, more decorative material quality.

There are various low brick walls and raised brick planters framing the main entrance, garden terrace and south end of the house. A wall encloses the garage courtyard to the north.

To the south of the house is a swimming pool with a flat-roofed cedar-wood changing hut designed by Spencely.