St Raphael Medical Centre

St Raphael Medical Centre

A country house converted to a private medical centre, located on the west side of Coldharbour Lane in Hildenborough. Built circa 1860s, possibly remodelling an earlier 19th-century house, with Edwardian alterations. The main block is designed in an early 17th-century French Mannerist style, rendered with stuccoed walls and slate roofs topped with stacks featuring rendered shafts.

The building is arranged on a north-south axis with the entrance on the east side and the garden front facing west. The plan is approximately T-shaped, with the main block containing the principal rooms to the south and an east wing at right angles at its north end, plus a long service block to the north. The principal rooms open from the entrance hall, with the main stair located to the north.

The main block rises to 2 storeys and an attic beneath a deep Mansard roof, while the east wing is single-storey and the service block is 3 storeys. The asymmetrical 8-bay east front of the main range has its centre 5 bays broken forward with rusticated quoins. A moulded string course runs at first floor level beneath a deep moulded eaves cornice. A small projecting porch bay features horizontal rustication and a glazed pent roof supported on cast iron brackets with pierced spandrels, together with a 19th-century ornamental cast iron veranda. The front door is a late 19th or 20th-century 2-leaf half-glazed door with overlight, flanked by transomed windows. Ground floor French windows have reeded architraves and cornices on brackets with transomed glazing. First floor windows are sashed with moulded architraves and pediments on console brackets. The attic windows in the Mansard roof are round-headed with keyblocks, moulded architraves and shaped brackets to either side, glazed with probably 1860s 2-pane sashes.

The north elevation of the east wing is asymmetrical, with 2 windows and a bowed right end bay to the north. The left-hand block comprises 3 bays broken forward at the centre. The wing has rusticated quoins, a parapet above a moulded cornice, and a projecting east end stack with rusticated shaft, mouldings and moulded coping. A doorway opens to the left (west) with a large Venetian window to the right and a 2-light window to the bow divided by composite columns. The garden (west) elevation displays 7 bays to both the service block (left/north) and the main block, which continues the style of the east elevation with similar windows. The 3 centre bays are canted out, and the 3 left-hand ground floor windows are contained within a single-storey canted rusticated bay. The south return of the main block includes an Edwardian bay window and a circa 1930s conservatory. The service block also features rusticated detail but with plainer architraves to windows, mostly 4-pane sashes.

The interior retains several 19th-century features in the principal rooms, appearing unexpectedly early for the 1860s dating. These include doorcases, panelled shutters, panelling with reeded friezes and decorated plasterwork to the ceilings. The main stair, designed in a 17th-century manner, has a heavy balustrade and moulded newel post. The principal room in the east wing preserves a decorated plaster ceiling and deep cornice.

This is a substantial Victorian house designed in a style more usually associated with hotel architecture.