Hillside

Hillside is a house designed in 1871 by R. Norman Shaw for William Cotton Oswell, the explorer who discovered Lake Ngami with David Livingstone. A polygonal bay was added to the front elevation in 1874. The building exemplifies the Old English style, with some 20th-century modernisation to the interior.

The exterior comprises two storeys and attics with a half-basement, constructed in Flemish bond brick to the ground floor. The first floor is tile-hung with a mixture of hammer-head and inverted scallop tiles, with some timber-framing cladding. A peg-tile roof with crested pierced ridge tiles and brick stacks complete the scheme.

The house is sited on a sharply sloping site that drops away to the south, with the entrance elevation facing east. The irregular plan accommodates principal rooms at the south end, an entrance hall with staircase in the centre, and service rooms to the north east. The gradient allows for a half-basement including a fireplace. A contemporary coach house projects to the front at the north east of the service end, forming a front courtyard.

The front elevation is asymmetrical with two windows and features a polygonal bay at the left end (added 1874). The main block has two gables to the front, with the attic storey jettied and a front lateral stack to the left. A recessed porch sits left of centre with a double-chamfered brick doorway, a three-centred arch, and stone hoodmould. The original front door is in 17th-century style with moulded nailed cover strips forming rectangular panels and ornamental bifurcated scroll hinges. Four-light timber mullioned casement windows appear at ground and first floor levels, with high transoms. The 1874 polygonal bay on the front left has a pyramidal roof and is hung with hammer-head tiles on the first floor, glazed with two-light transomed casements.

The south elevation features a one-window gabled projection and a two-storey canted bay. The basement window is four-light with stone mullions and a pentice on brackets; the ground floor has a six-light high transomed timber mullioned window. The first floor is jettied on curved brackets with a matching four-light window. The attic gable oversails on brackets and is close-studded with a two-light casement.

The right-hand block has matching windows at each floor and a gabled attic dormer. Deep eaves are supported on sturdy moulded brackets throughout. The rear elevation contains a one-window gabled projection, two windows in the main block, a tall lateral stack to the right, and a timber-framed canted bay supported on timber posts and brackets at basement level. A single-storey lean-to projection adjoins the main block. A raking attic dormer with a four-light window lights the stair. The stair window is four-light with two transoms, formerly filled with stained glass. Panelled doors with moulded nailed cover strips access the basement; a French window opens from the first floor. The canted bay incorporates herringbone framing and has a moulded fascia with deep eaves and moulded bargeboards.

The observatory platform on the main roof ridge features a stick baluster balustrade and pyramidal roof on posts—a distinctive feature reflecting the patron's exploring interests and providing views across Kent and Sussex.

The contemporary coach house is in the same style, with brick laid in English garden wall bond, a peg-tile roof with deep eaves on moulded brackets, and pierced crested ridge tiles. The east end has a pair of original panelled doors with strap hinges below a four-light coved oriel loft window, with the gable above jettied and hung with hammer-head tiles.

Interior features include a stair with bobbin-turned balusters, panelled doors, shutters, and timber chimney-pieces to the first floor rooms. The principal ground floor room in the south west corner has plastered-over crossbeams and a window seat facing south. The kitchen retains an original built-in dresser, and a service stair features stick balusters. The principal chimney-pieces have been replaced; otherwise interior features remain intact. A stair or ladder to the observatory probably existed originally.

Hillside is an attractive Vernacular Revival house on a prominent site above Groombridge and holds group value with other houses on Groombridge Hill.