St Mary'S Gatehouse Including Attached Steps, Seat, Lamp, Drinking Fountain And Letterbox

This is a 1915 house with attached steps, a seat, a street lamp, a drinking fountain, and a letterbox, built in Sevenoaks. It was commissioned by Charles W Bowles, FRIBA, for Henry Percy Thompson as a memorial to his parents. The house is constructed in a Tudor style, with a timber frame and plaster infilling on a sandstone base. It has a peg-tiled roof and two paired diagonally-set brick chimney stacks to the ridge, along with a large external brick and stone chimneystack with paired diagonal shafts. The building is two storeys high with three windows. Each end features a projecting gable with cusped barge-boards, pendants, close-studding, crenellated tie beams, and quatrefoil ornaments. The central bay incorporates a four-light mullioned casement with leaded lights, while the other windows are two-light. The front ground floor originally featured a filled-in Tudor arch flanked by cinquefoil-headed sidelights, which likely served as the main entrance, but the current entrance is located in a porch on the right-hand side elevation. An open passageway to the left leads to St Mary's Church. This passageway has a moulded bressummer, a four-centred arch flanked by cinquefoil-headed lights, and rows of cinquefoil-headed lights to the sides. Inside the passageway is a plastered ceiling with fleur-de-lys and shield motifs, and a lead plaque with an inscription dedicated to the donor's parents. The rear elevation is close-studded and includes a projecting gable with an attached glazed staircase. The interior features a staircase with splat balusters and a wooden fireplace with Delft tiles. Outside, a section of curved walling made of stone, brick, and tiles incorporates a series of stone steps that divide to enclose a triangular wooden seat with an Art Nouveau lamp standard, comprising a square wooden pier, a square glass and iron lantern, and a finial. A stone wall attached to the left-hand side incorporates a metal drinking fountain and a Victorian wall letter box. Behind the house, a flight of curved stone steps continues, ending in two brick piers with stone cornices. The income from renting the house was initially earmarked to contribute to the benefice stipend.