The Observatory

The Observatory

This building on Sea Road in Westgate on Sea was designed in 1899 by Sir Banister Flight Fletcher as a private house in the Arts and Crafts style. It was later converted to a school and is now used as a care home.

The house is constructed with varied external finishes: part of the front and the entire right side elevation are pebbledashed, the remainder of the front and part of the rear are tile-hung predominantly with fishscale tiles, and the rest is red brick. The steeply pitched hipped tiled roof has two projecting crow-stepped gables on each side, each with pebbledashed chimneystack capped with stone. The building rises to two storeys with an attic and a distinctive lookout or observatory feature above.

The most notable exterior feature is the rooftop lookout, which gives the building its name. It has a battered square tiled base with a four-light window and an ogee-shaped lead roof, topped with a metal weathervane. The central attic window is set within a deep curved pediment in a fishscale tiled projection, with the gable displaying timber-framing incorporating a central diaper motif and pebbledashed infill, beneath a six-light window. Small flat-roofed dormers with decorative flashing punctuate the roof line.

The front elevation has five windows, mostly wooden mullioned casements, with mullioned and transomed examples on the ground floor. The three central bays of the first floor are tile-hung. A central half-glazed door opens onto a wooden balcony with strapwork decoration and upright posts topped with acorn finials. Flanking windows have five lights, with narrow side windows in stone surrounds. The ground floor is pebbledashed. The central bay was originally an open loggia but was enclosed in the mid-20th century with similar glazing to the adjacent windows; a late 20th-century door was installed, though the original door surround with rectangular fanlight and beamed ceiling survive internally. The adjoining windows are six-light mullioned and transomed casements, with narrow side windows in stone surrounds. A projecting mid-20th-century garage to the right is of no special interest.

The left side elevation has a pebbledashed gable, with the following two bays featuring tile-hanging to the first floor and brick to the ground floor. A service wing to the rear is of red brick. This elevation has three casements to the first floor and four cambered-headed windows to the ground floor, along with a double-width door topped by a curved wooden hood supported on brackets and pilasters with strapwork to the upper part. The right side elevation is wholly pebbledashed. The rear elevation displays a six-light casement to the attic, a first floor door flanked by sidelights to the left, a flat-roofed 20th-century brick extension to the left, and an original brick service wing with a four-light window to the first floor and a cambered opening to the ground floor.

Internally, the staircase hall features a beamed ceiling and an arcade of three round-headed arches supported by two circular columns, two pilasters, and two circular lights. The left side front room was originally open to the hall but a later partition has divided the space. This room has a beamed ceiling and a series of strapwork columns and battered pilasters. The right side front ground floor room contains a wooden fireplace embellished with mutules and paterae. A fine painted wooden well staircase with splat balusters, chamfered corner posts, and ball finials ascends through the house. The first floor front bedroom to the right has a wooden fireplace with panels, brackets, and display shelf, while a rear bedroom has a wooden fireplace with eared architrave and shelf above.

According to the original plans, a Billiard Room was located on the first floor left. Although the plans show no side windows to the front and a plain railing and flagstaff rather than the current lookout, these appear to be contemporary features that were modified after the plans received approval.