St Michaels

St Michaels

House, now in use as a healing centre. Built 1831-38 to the designs of Decimus Burton for Alderman David Salomons, who later became High Sheriff for Kent and Sussex. The building is constructed of local sandstone ashlar with slate roofs featuring lead rolls and chimney stacks with stone shafts. Although the Old List Description referred to it as Tudor in style, the fanciful architectural detail is closer to 18th-century Gothick.

The building comprises a long, irregular approximately rectangular range with a garden elevation facing south-south-east and an entrance on the north side. The principal rooms face south, with service rooms to the east. The internal layout was considerably altered in the 20th century, including the removal of the principal stair, and a chapel addition was made at the west end in the 1950s.

The exterior is of 2 and 3 storeys. Coped gables feature kneelers and moulded stringcourses to the verges; some gables are false but windowed to give the appearance of an additional storey. The windows display various Gothick forms: some with Tudor arched heads, some square-headed, some with triangular hoodmoulds, and some lancets. Original small-pane casement glazing survives in some windows, though unfortunately some 20th-century replacements are present. The roofs are hipped and gabled slate with tall grouped chimney stacks featuring moulded bases and corbelled caps; some stacks are octagonal.

The asymmetrical 9-window entrance elevation on the north side is composed of various blocks of different heights. A 2-bay entrance block positioned right of centre has a projecting coped gabled porch with kneelers and a Tudor arched doorway. Two gabled dormers with Tudor arched windows feature original glazing and hoodmoulds. A square-headed 2-light window to the left of the porch displays a high transomed small-pane casement with a hoodmould. To the right of the entrance block, a 4-bay block with a parapet and projecting lateral stack contains three first-floor small-pane 2-light casements with hoodmoulds; ground floor windows were altered in the 20th century. Two attic dormers have segmental arched roofs. To the left of the entrance block, three gabled bays feature symmetrically-arranged windows of various designs and false gables; the two left-hand gables contain respectively a bullseye window and a 2-light Tudor arched window with hoodmould glazed with stained glass. The service wing, set back to the left, continues in the same style.

The garden elevation on the south side of the main block is more regular. A projecting 4-bay block to the right (east) features four gables to the front and a moulded string at sill level of the first-floor windows, which have square-headed hoodmoulds except the left-hand window, which is Tudor arched. Four tall ground-floor windows—the two centre windows paired—all have hoodmoulds. The left and right returns of the projecting block have canted bays with end stacks, the flues apparently divided on the ground floor on either side of a ground-floor window with a hoodmould and carved label stops. To the left, the range is set back with 2 bays containing 2-light first-floor windows with hoodmoulds and attic dormers with segmental arched roofs; a 20th-century flat-roofed single-storey addition stands to the front. A gabled block set back at the right end has a Tudor arched first-floor window with a hoodmould.

The interior has been considerably rearranged in the 20th century. The entrance hall contains a fine cantilevered winder stair with stick balusters and a ramped handrail, said not to be the original stair. The principal rooms retain 18th-century style panelling and chimney-pieces. Considerable 20th-century refurbishment has been undertaken, including a small oratory.