Churchill Court Including Terrace Walls

Churchill Court including Terrace Walls

A former large house, now the College of Insurance, originally built around 1900 as 'Craigmore' by architect Thomas Potter. The building was completely remodelled and extended with an L-shaped wing during the 1920s by the architectural firm Imrie and Angell in a Kentish Vernacular style.

The entrance front faces east and features a red brick ground floor with timber-framed first floor and plaster infill. The end two bays are tile hung, beneath a steeply pitched tiled roof punctuated by six Tudor-style brick chimney stacks. The building rises two storeys with attics and contains eight windows total. Four dormers break the roofline, one gabled and the others hipped. The windows are predominantly mullioned with leaded lights and hand-made iron latches. The principal feature is a large off-centre gable decorated with vine motifs and a pendant. The timber framing displays close-studding and diagonal tension bracing with staggered horizontal members creating a pleasing decorative pattern. A four-centred arched stone doorcase with roses carved in the spandrels forms the main entrance. To the right are two recessed bays with arched supports. Lead rainwater heads drain the roof.

The L-wing incorporates a central vehicular entrance and features brick ground floor and tile-hung first floor with five mullioned windows and three hipped dormers. The rear of the L-wing has a predominantly plastered ground floor and tile-hung first floor with six mullioned windows. A striking feature is a massive two-storey bay decorated with a pattern of triangular tiling.

The garden front to the west has a plastered ground floor on a brick plinth with tile-hung first floor. The right-hand section projects as a gable on wooden supports with a ground floor bay. Three mullioned windows light the left portion, which features a central projecting two-storey bay with recesses either side arranged in the manner of a Wealden house. To the left stands the projecting original house with five windows including a central overhanging gable on brackets. At the extreme left is a single-storey open verandah that was glazed in during the late 20th century to form a dining room, with four circular wooden piers. A brick range adjoining the end contains a court with a semi-circular wall in Sussex bond. An attached red brick terrace features terracotta semi-circular inserts and stone coping, with adjoining stone steps and terrace walling. A brick fountain sits beneath the verandah.

The interior is notable for several features. The staircase hall contains a large oak well staircase with turned balusters and square fielded panelled newels, with dado panelling and a splay to the landing. The half-landing has two steps leading to a recess with three Jacobean-style round-headed arches with tall finials on each side, and a large 6 by 3 mullioned window with pegged oak frames and iron hinges. The first floor contains two Tudor-arched door surrounds with 12-panelled doors and two further Tudor arches to corridors. The ceiling features a plaster rose with rose design, rose and vine frieze and floral motif cornice. The ground floor has a stone fireplace with Tudor arch and cable moulding to the sides, six oak door cases with cornices, pilasters and 12 panels. The vestibule contains double doors with leaded lights and cockshead hinges.

The Dining Room probably originally comprised two separate rooms. The right-hand side has an Elizabethan-type ceiling with three axial beams and floor joists, all stop-chamfered with run-out stops. The left-hand side features tall Georgian-style panelling with coved cornice and two semi-circular china cupboards with keystone, pilasters and serpentine shelves. The ground floor corridor contains an oak cupboard with semi-circular arch, keystone, roses in the spandrels and diamond-patterned oak panels. Wide oak floorboards are present throughout. The Churchill Room has a ceiling with nine heavy roll-moulded panels and a large oak fire surround with double pilasters and cornice with tetraglyphs and paterae. The fireplace is four-centred arched stone with a rectangular panel with herringbone moulding and two round-headed niches. The cellar contains a staircase with stick balusters and a large wine cellar. A first-floor room has a curved ceiling with plastered grape decoration. The servants' staircase, probably one of the few surviving features of the original 1900 house, retains turned newels and balusters.

At the end of the Second World War, the owner at the time, Mr Charles Hopkins, presented the house to Winston Churchill in appreciation of his services to the nation. Churchill subsequently presented the property to the British Legion, which used it as a convalescent home for its members for many years and renamed it Churchill Court. Between 1903 and 1946 the house was known as Kippington Court.