Seven Stones House, Including Attached Garages, Workshops And Garden House, Boundary And Garden Walls, Gatepiers, Gates And Terrace Walls

Seven Stones House is a large detached house built in 1927 in Broadstairs, Kent. It was designed by Samuel Harrington Evans, assistant to Sir Edwin Lutyens, for Howard Paget, founder of the Dorking Brick Company and owner of a Derby porcelain factory which later became part of Royal Crown Derby. The builder was J.T. May and Son, and the gardens were designed by the garden architect Percy Cane.

The house displays Arts and Crafts influence in Jacobean style. It is constructed of two and a half inch bricks made by the Dorking Brick Company, with stone mullioned or mullioned and transomed windows featuring leaded lights and a tiled roof with several brick chimneystacks set diagonally. The building follows an H-shaped plan with two storeys and attics, irregular fenestration, and five bays to the front.

The south-east facing front elevation features a central projecting gabled two-storey porch with a four-centred arched doorway and oak-panelled door. Projecting end bays have curved gables with two-light windows to the attic, six-light windows to the first floor and five-light mullioned and transomed windows to the ground floor. The penultimate bay to the right contains a large three-tier staircase window, while the penultimate bay to the left has three casements to the first floor and a four-light mullioned and transomed window to the ground floor. The south-western elevation displays three mullioned windows of four, five and four lights to the first floor, two four-light windows to the ground floor (the right window mullioned and transomed), and two central arched entrances to a formerly open loggia now enclosed with later twentieth-century glazed doors. The north-eastern elevation, the former service end to the western side, has a series of mullioned windows. The north-west elevation features a recessed centre with deeply projecting wings enclosing a courtyard with low brick wall, square piers, three brick steps, a brick-paved courtyard and rectangular stone pond, linked by three terrace walls with brick steps.

Attached to the house are original brick garages and a workshop, now fitted with twentieth-century shutter-fronted doors, a garden room and store. Brick boundary walls, approximately six feet high, feature pilasters at regular intervals. In front of the house the wall is approximately three feet in height with six brick piers, including central piers either side of a decorative wrought iron gate bearing the house name, an overthrow and five steps. The front garden is enclosed with a higher brick wall featuring a round-headed entrance to the left side, and a section to the north-west includes an elaborate wrought iron gate with scrollwork.

Internally, a vestibule opens into a central ground floor corridor with Jacobean style oak plank and muntin panelling approximately six feet high with a moulded plate cornice, decorative radiator panels, panelled doors with S-shaped iron hinges and an oak well staircase with moulded wooden balusters and a square newel post with moulded finial. The Dining Room to the south-west has similar panelling and radiator panels, and a four-centred stone fireplace with brick fireback. The service wing to the north-west retains the original oak service staircase with stick balusters, a newel post with domed cap and servants' bells. The Scullery and Kitchen retain original wooden cupboards, and a small Sitting Room has a brick fireplace. The Study to the left of the front door retains its original brick fireplace. The Lounge to the south-east has a large original brick fireplace with pilasters and a plate cornice. The Music Room has three large square chrome lights, possibly original, but the fireplace has been removed and replaced with a mirror feature. The first floor retains all original brick fireplaces to the bedrooms, with a chrome surround to the one in Bedroom 3, an original gas fire to Bedroom 4 and a large built-in cupboard to Bedroom 6. The Master Bedroom has a large dressing room built in one corner, and the adjoining bathroom is lined in green and white Vitrolite with original fittings and a large purpose-built airing cupboard.

The house was named to commemorate the owner's experience at sea when his boat was lost in a storm but was saved by the presence of the Seven Stones Lightship, moored between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly. A weathervane within the grounds, thought to have been made for the Pagets, depicts the Seven Stones Lightship. The house represents a remarkably intact late Arts and Crafts design in Jacobean style.